Banish the water blues
August 3rd, 2009
It’s funny to me that every animal on the planet drinks water and then humans come along and we’re bored with water. It makes up over 60% of our body and covers 70% of the earth’s surface. Man, water is like, SO BORING!
So we drink our sodas and our lattes and our purple-flavored juices and I guess this is more interesting? Well, yes, it is actually very interesting…to read the ingredient labels!
Yikes. What is this crap and who decided it was something people should drink? Have you ever tasted a Pepsi that’s warm? It’s horrible. The ice-cold soda phenomenon works in part because of the numbing effect the cold has on our taste buds. It’s the same reason that cheap beer is advertised as “Ice Cold” but artisan crafted brews are served cask conditioned at a warmer temperature. So you can actually taste it.
Maybe this is a test of what we should and shouldn’t drink: Does it taste ok warm? Water, yes. Juice, sorta. But soda? No way.
Anyway, I usually recommend herbal tea as an alternative to drinking water. But now I have another trick – Water kefir!
Have you heard of kefir? It usually refers to a milk product similar to yogurt. But it is possible to make your own water kefir and get the same living probiotic benefits for a healthy digestive system. This has been my project for the past few weeks.
I started by ordering water kefir grains from Cultures for Health. They arrived in a dehydrated state so I had to rehydrate them in a bath of sugar water for a few days. Then they were ready to rock.
To make kefir you basically combine water and sugar, then add the grains. The ratio is 1/4 cup sugar to 4 cups water. Then, the mixture sits for 24-48 hours and the grains consume 80% of the sugar. You are left with a slightly sweet, sometimes bubbly drink that can be flavored in endless ways.
I like that you can decide what type of sugar to use. I’ve tried using Sucanat, which is the darker liquid in the jars pictured above. The molasses-y flavor of Sucanat works well with vanilla flavoring. Our favorite water kefir flavor so far has been lemonade, shown above on the right. For this we use organic evaporated cane sugar which has a more mild flavor. After the kefir is done fermenting, I add the juice and rind of 1 organic lemon. It’s a snap.
So already we have a number of great reasons to try kefir: probiotic benefits, control over ingredients, low in sugar, and lots of flavors to try. But what I really love is that once you buy those grains you can have a brand new yummy drink option every day or two for just pennies. It’s a really healthy and cost-effective way to banish the water blues. Learn more about water kefir here.
Finally, just a note on flavor and the fermenting process. If it tastes weird but good, that’s good. If it tastes and smells weird and bad, that’s yucky and don’t drink it. Happy fermenting!
