How to make water kefir or milk kefir?

Plain kefir is tangy and strong; blending it with fruit and a touch of sweetener produces a creamy, drinkable smoothie that tastes like dessert while delivering billions of live probiotics. An easy way to make kefir a daily habit.

When you can't find kefir grains, use a spoonful of live-culture store-bought kefir as your starter. The culture is less diverse than real grains and weakens over generations, but it gets you brewing kefir today.

A naturally carbonated, mildly sweet probiotic drink made from sugar water and water kefir grains. These grains (distinct from milk kefir grains) feed on sugar, producing lactic acid and CO2 — a homemade soda with live cultures.

A thin, drinkable probiotic yogurt made by adding milk kefir grains to any milk and letting it ferment at room temperature for a day. Kefir grains contain over 50 species of bacteria and yeast — far more diverse than yogurt — and are reusable indefinitely.

Live kefir grains can be purchased online from sellers on Etsy, Amazon, or specialty sites like Cultures for Health ($8-20). You can also find them for free through local fermentation communities, Facebook groups, or Craigslist — experienced kefir makers always have surplus grains to share.