Packed full of healthy probiotics, kefir is one of those drinks that is almost too good to be true. Ridiculously easy to make, lots of different varieties of flavours to try and most importantly so good for your gut health. Below we’ll give you some tips on the best way to flavour your kefir creations and how to re-culture your kefir batch.

Flavours and Infusions During the Second Ferment

Thanks to the fermentation process that happens in kefir there is a lovely tang to its final flavour, regardless of if you have used milk, juice or coconut water as a base. Because of this, we recommend primarily fruit, vegetable and spice flavours as infusions, unless you’re getting into the really creative realm and want sour chocolate kefir as an option.

Flavouring occurs during the second fermentation of your kefir. This is when you have completed the initial step of fermenting for 24 hours to really wake up your culture and get it nice and active. The second fermentation is when you add the flavours and any additional ingredients and leave it for a further 6 – 12 hours to ferment. This is the best process for flavouring as not only is your kefir good and strong to begin with, but it means the culture has even more time to produce those beneficial probiotics for your gut.

Once you have added your desired flavours and left the kefir to ferment for 6 hours, do a taste test and to see how the flavour has changed, continue for another 6 hours if it’s not quite there yet. Make sure you taste after 6 hours as the additional sugar that you have added in the form of fruit and other ingredients will make the bacteria even more active and the flavour can change quickly.

Milk Kefir

The best way to flavour milk kefir is in a blender! Add your favourite smoothie ingredients, pour in your milk kefir and whizz. This will remove some of the thickness that has developed over the fermentation period but whatever ingredients you have added will help thicken it up anyway.

Favourite flavour combinations

Mango + Turmeric

Raspberries + Blueberries + Banana + Spinach

Vanilla + Cinnamon

Juice Kefir or Coconut Water Kefir

Fruit infusions can be a delicious addition to any juice or coconut water kefir. Choose your favourite fruit and give it a good clean to make sure you have removed all bacteria that could potentially compete with the kefir culture. Cut it into small chunks to increase the surface area that will impart the flavour and add it to your jar of kefir after the initial 24 hours of ferment time. Leave it for 6 hours at room temperature, have a taste and if you’re happy, enjoy! Alternatively leave it for a further 6 hours for more flavour to develop, keep tasting until you are happy at which point move it to the fridge or drink it straight away.

Favourite flavour combinations

Coconut water kefir + Pineapple + Mango

Apple juice kefir + Rosemary

Orange juice kefir + Lemon + Ginger

Re-Culturing your Kefir

Your culture can be re-cultured a further two times from the initial kefir batch. We recommend re-culturing within 7 days of your first batch to ensure you are getting the strongest and most active culture from your initial batch, the earlier the better!

Save 1/4 cup (62 g) of kefir from the previous batch and add it to 750 mL (25.7 US fl oz) of fresh milk, juice or coconut water. Only add the kefir to the same base e.g. milk kefir to culture milk kefir, juice kefir to culture juice kefir. The different kefir’s have different acidity levels so will react badly if you add them to different base products, plus milk and juice together is a little bit too odd even for us.

Cover the jar and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

Taste after 24 hours and if you’re happy then move it to the fridge, otherwise leave at room temperature for a further 12 hours before tasting again.