Is there any point in doing kefir *and* kombucha?

[Smokering]

I just discovered a source for a kombucha scoby, but I'm wondering if it's worth doing it. I've been doing milk kefir for a while now (we let our water kefir grains die because we were sick, and because I didn't really like the taste anyway). I find I tend to forget about it for a few days, so it often tastes way more sour than we like. We drink it just as a drink, with honey mixed in for DH and DD and maple syrup for me. I quite like the taste of the not-so-sour stuff with maple syrup, but we definitely drink it for our health and not because we love it.

So given that we kinda struggle to get through our kefir, is it worth adding kombucha to the mix? What does it taste like? Is it so nutritionally superior to kefir to make it a must-do? Do you just drink yours straight? I'm torn between thinking "Ooh, another TF thing to do!" and not wanting to babysit another live foodstuff I'm not that crazy about.

[StrongBeliever]

Well, I'd give it a shot. I find that kombucha is easier to maintain than kefir... It takes longer to ferment and if it goes over a few days it doesn't make a terribly huge difference in taste. That and my kids love kombucha, and don't particularly care for kefir.

I love kombucha, and DO NOT like kefir. So that is a big reason why we wanted to try it. Just to introduce more options. As far as the taste goes... It can range anywhere from a tart/biting/tingly apple-juicy taste to straight up apple cider vinegar taste. It depends on temp and fermentation times. It takes quite a while for it to get to the vinegar point... I actually happen to like it very sour, but it sounds like you might not. Another good thing about kombucha and being water based... If it gets TOO sour, you can always dilute it with water or a tastier beverage(plain tea or juice) and still salvage a lot of the probiotic goodness.

And I don't know how much you pay for good milk, but if I had to pay $5-$15 a gallon for quality raw milk, then I would certainly choose kombucha. It boils down to far less than a dollar a gallon. If I used organic tea, it might be more expensive but certainly not even as expensive as a gallon of cheap milk.

[Feb2003]

I agree with the previous poster. kombucha ferments more slowly (and in a bigger batch at my house) than kefir. it's easier to 'forget about' for a while and needs a lot less care.

after your brew is ready (which just depends on personal taste), you can decant it into smaller bottles and flavor them...actually, you can decant straight into a cup and it'll pull flavor out of added ingredients pretty fast so it'll be ready to drink almost immediately (and taste even better if you wait a few minutes). if you decant and flavor in bottles, you can leave on the counter for a few days to really pull out flavor and allow more carbonation (called a second fermentation..search it).

we like to add frozen fruit just b/c it's super easy

i added about 3 frozen raspberries to my glass earlier, walked away for a few minutes, and came back to an almost empty glass (about a pint) b/c my 5 yo had gotten there first (the sip that was left had turn dark ruby pink)

we like:
plain
raspberries
blueberries
lemon
ginger

things we tried that we didn't love tend to be the more sugary fruits (peach, mango, etc) b/c the yeast colony goes crazy and it ended up tasting like hooch....but that might appeal to others

for all flavorings, larger surface area = faster and more complete flavoring so grate the ginger if you love it, do a slice and leave for less time for a milder flavor

even with secondary fermentation in swing top bottles (to avoid explosion while building carbonation...like beer), I haven't been able to get it as fizzy as store bought *while* it still tastes good. but that's ok with us...we don't mind it flat.

i've found the easiest brewing vessel to be the anchor hawking 1 gallon (cookie-jar-looking) glass jar at Walmart...it's about $7. (I don't use the lid to brew, but have kept it so I can use the jar in other ways.)

A 1 gallon batch = scoby + starter + cooled sweet tea (3 qts water + 5 tea bags + 1 c of sugar) if you want to figure cost. I buy the organic Choice black tea from amazon in bulk to save $$

have fun!

[pixiepunk]

i don't like the taste of kombucha personally, and also you have to be careful drinking it if you're pregnant and/or nursing (which i have been for the last 8 years) so my suggestion is that you might try water kefir instead. my kids looooove water kefir, and we all find it easier to drink than dairy kefir (though we do drink that too, mostly in smoothies).

[mysticpi]

I thought I would chime in to suggest in idea for the milk kefir that you are not enjoying.

I also don't really like milk kefir on its own but I LOVE it in smoothies. Have you tried it that way? I have made all kinds of smoothies with it:

-strawberry banana
- blueberry banana
-Mango banana
-mango pineapple

and my new favourite: Peach banana!

I also sometiemes add some raw spinach to the orange/yellow smoothies: Green smoothie!