Real Kefir for You

What are live kefir grains? To answer that question we first have to ask “What is Kefir?”

According to the online dictionary merriam-webster.com:

ke·fir “noun \ke-ˈfir; ˈkē-fər, ˈke-\) is “a beverage of fermented cow’s milk.”

Wow! That is a rather general term that can mean just about anything having to do with milk…any kind of milk. Let’s see if we can narrow the answer to the question down a little bit. Wikipedia.com states:(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir#cite_note-Prado-3)

Kefir or kephir (/kəˈfɪər/ kə-FEER),^[1][2] is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from live kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic symbiotic culture. The drink originated in the North Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Russia,^[3] where it is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep milk with live kefir grains.^[4]

Note: I have inserted "live kefir grains" for "kefir grains".  As we shall see later, there is a distinction between live kefir grains and kefir grains.

Now we’re getting somewhere. We have limited the choices of milk to three types, and have learned that kefir is made with something called “kefir grains”. The types of milk are pretty simple to understand. Most people know about milk from cows and goats, and some even know that you can get milk from sheep, but I am curious to find out about these kefir grains. We’ll get to that a little later.

A few more searches and we find that kefir is a probiotic (meaning it’s good for you) fermented milk product that has a creamy texture, can be a little tart to the taste, can be a little fizzy and can contain slight amounts of alcohol from the fermentation process.

What is kefir good for?

We also find there are a lot of people who think kefir is great for promoting a healthy body. People who are lactose intolerant find they can drink kefir, while they can’t drink milk. It can be made into cheese. It has been used to make sourdough bread, and to take the place of buttermilk in food recipes.

Let’s get back to the original question of what is real kefir. In nearly every place I look for information on kefir, the one thing I find in common is what is referred to as kefir grains. It seems that kefir is the by-product of these grains growing in milk. It is possible make kefir by purchasing Kefir Starter. Unfortunately these Kefir Starters have to be replaced after producing just a few batches of kefir. Kefir grains, on the other hand, will produce an unlimited number of batches, and in fact will grow during the production of daily batches of kefir. This fact turns on a light bulb inside my head….one method has to be renewed every few days, while the other continues to make kefir indefinitely.