Quote:
Originally Posted by the_dalai_mama
I'm slowly mustering up the courage to try my own brew.
I am a kombucha adict and was planning to track down a kombucha mushroom and brew that, but this is the first I have heard of water kefir!!
If you can excuse a culturing newbie butting into this thread, I have a few questions:
1) Besides the obvious water vs. black tea, what are the differences between water kefir and kombucha?
2) I was planning to try a batch of kefir with raw milk, but my family is very used to the kefir we buy with fruit flavors and sugar added, has anyone blended their milk kefir with fresh fruit and agave nectar/maple syrup/honey?
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Milk Kefir grains are for culturing milk and will enrich and alter it to be more like a wide spectrum yogurt, with the addition of healthy yeasts also.
Info on the content of milk kefir is more easily found and so I'll not type that. Just see the 'Got Kefir' archived thread for more info on milk kefir and it's uses.
Water Kefir grains are for the use in a water/sugar mixture and will give you a probiotic drink that is dairy free. Here are some of the healthy bacteria and yeasts found in water kefir:
Lactobacilli
Lb. alactosus
Lb. brevis
Lb. casei subsp. casei
Lb. casei subsp. pseudoplantarum
Lb. casei subsp. rhamnosus
Lb. casei subsp. tolerans
Lb. coryneformis subsp. torquens
Lb. fructosus
Lb. hilgardii
Lb. homohiochi
Lb. plantarum
Lb. pseudoplantarum
Lb. yamanashiensis
Yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
S. florentinus
S. pretoriensis
Candida valida
C. lambica
Kloeckera apiculata
Hansenula yalbensis
Streptococci/lactococci
Streptococcus cremeris
Str. faecalis
Str. lactis
Leuconostoc mesenteroides
Pediococcus damnosus
Water kefir is usually very mildly alcholic, but this can be increased by longer fermentations or with the addition of more sugar or solid fruit juices.
Kombucha (SCOBYs) are used to ferment/culture black or green tea. A Kombucha SCOBY is not a mushroom or a fungus as many call it, but another symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeasts (the good kinds).
The key ingredient formed in Kombucha ferments is glucuronic acid, which binds up poisons and toxins in the body, both environmental and metabolic (naturally occuring) and flushes it out of the body via the kidneys. This is a natural process that your liver and kidneys would do every day by producing it's own glucuronic acid, however the Kombucha tea boosts this process.
Glucuronic acid is also a bulding block for a group of polysaccharides, including hyaluronic acid (a component of connective tissues), chondroitin sulfate (a component of cartilage), mucoitinsulfuric acid (a building block of the stomach lining and vitreous humor of the eye) and heparin.
A small amount of alcohol is produced (about .5%) and it is lightly carbonated.
The Kombucha brew also contains Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12 (vegan source), as well as folic acid and L-lactic acid, which is a substance that is usually low or missing in cancer patients, and is believed that low levels of this needed substance helps prevent failure in cell respiration and the build up of undesirable DL-lactic acid in tissues.
Kombucha also has usnic acid which has a mild antibacterial effect.
I hope that makes it more clear why you might want to drink one or all three of these types of drinks. They all have a 'place' and are beneficial to your health, if properly taken care of and brewed according to instructions.
Here is the 'Got Kefir' link:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=203282
I personally am brewing all three cultures and will have more 'Kombucha SCOBY' available this week, and in a few weeks the other two, as I have a good sized list going. I ask for shipping and handling reimbursement only, PM me your info if you want on the list.
Heather