Coconut Water Kefir

I stopped buying as much kombucha, when I finally learned how to make my own fizzy coconut water kefir. I love it plain a lot, but sometimes I do change up the flavors by adding different juices to the second fermentation. My favorite juices are pomegranate, black cherry, pineapple. The sugars in juices are used up for fermentation by the beneficial Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

Ingredients:

1 quart Zico coconut water
1 Kefir starter (I used Body Ecology)
1 cup pomegranate juice (optional, you can pick any juice you like)

Directions:

  1. For the first batch heat coconut water on low to 92F. Take off the stove and add one packet of Body Ecology starter.
  2. Pour the mixture into 1 Quart bottle and set it on the counter for 24-48 hours. Make sure the temperature in your house is around 75F. The mixture will become sour after a while, as the beneficial bacteria eats it to reproduce. The final product has some tiny amount of sugar left, with no added sugars after the fermentation process is over.
  3. After the first batch is finished, you can use some of it, but keep the rest to start next batches as a starter. The process for the next batches is the same: Warm up coconut water to 92F and add 1/2 cup of coconut water kefir from the previous batch.
  4. When it is cold outside, like it is all of a sudden in Arizona in March, put your batch in the oven, close the oven, and turn on the light. Just the light will keep your batch warm and cozy. There are two caveats to this method though: You may forget that your oven is not empty and turn it on to warm up for cooking. It happened to me at least once and I had to clean the sauerkraut juice from the bottom of it. Luckily, I remembered and took my coconut kefir and sauerkraut from the oven right away. There is a possibility of a small explosion if you covered your ferments with a lid very tight and overheated the jars. The second caveat is not to forget about your ferments altogether. At least once I realized I have left my coconut kefir for 4 days in the oven. Mommy’s brain, they say.

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