the.com/kefir
yogurt's punk cousin, fermented by grains that look like tiny cauliflower brains
means A tart, slightly fizzy fermented milk drink made by culturing milk with kefir grains, a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.
from The name comes to English via Russian from the Caucasus, where the drink has long been made; the Russian 'kefir' is thought to derive from a Turkic or North Caucasian source, possibly linked to a root meaning 'pleasure' or 'good feeling' (compare Turkish 'keyif'), though the exact path is uncertain. The grains themselves were guarded so closely by mountain peoples that getting the recipe out into the wider world reportedly took some early-20th-century cloak-and-dagger persuasion.
- living grains
- made by bacteria-yeast colonies, not seeds
- caucasus origin
- guarded as family wealth for centuries
- more microbes
- hosts far more bacterial strains than yogurt
- mild fizz
- yeast can make it slightly alcoholic
- name meaning
- roughly translates to feeling good
lifeway kefir — us fermented milk drink brand with live cultures, founded 1986, sold in major grocery chains
caucasus region kefir — traditional fermented milk from the caucasus mountains, dating back centuries, made with kefir grains
redwood hill farm kefir — california goat milk kefir producer since 1968, pioneered kefir fermentation in the us