Ok, what *is* kefir?

[Snowdrift]

Sorry to be obscenely redundant, but I've got a friend over who is curious, as am I. I have a rough idea, but can someone just tell me what is kefir and kombucha? I mean: definition, taste, how to make, preservation?

TIA!

[Pinky Tuscadero]

They are fermented drinks. Kombucha starts out as tea, then is fermented by a combination of bacteria and yeast. Tastes a little vinegary.
Kefir is similar to yogurt, roughly.

[saratc]

As pp mentioned, both kombucha and kefir are fermented/cultured drinks. Just like cheese is made by curdling milk and adding certain strains of bacteria and beer is made by adding certain yeast strains to grain malt, kombucha is made by adding a symbiosis of yeast and bacteria to sweetened tea. Fermenting or culturing occurs when the bacteria and/or yeast strains feed on the sugars in the food it is culturing.

The kombucha culture looks like a giant mushroom-like pancake. It feeds on the nutrients found in sugary tea and generally is allowed to brew for about 7 to 14 days during which metabolic processes take place where the sugary tea is converted to a sour drink that's very much like tangy apple cider with a kick. The resulting drink contains a lot of beneficial vitamins and nutrients including B vitamins, C, minerals, gluconic acid, and other acids that are very good at helping the body cleanse and detox itself.

In terms of kefir, there's milk kefir and water kefir. The kefir culture looks like little grains shaped like little cauliflower florets. Milk kefir grains feed on the lactose and other sugars found in milk. The resulting drink is a lot like drinkable yogurt with a yeasty flavor and often a tang cause by a slight fizziness. Water kefir grains feed on minerals and sugar and is usually made by mixing a high mineral sweetener like sucanat/rapadura with water and adding fruit, ginger, or other ingredients to flavor the water kefir. Water kefir tastes kind of like tangy soda but with only a hint or no sweetness, depending on how long you allow it to brew. Both milk kefir and water kefir only takes about a day to brew.

Kombucha and kefir are good probiotics. Kefir is also especially good at introducing good strains of yeast into the body which can help combat yeast issues such as candida or thrush.