Water and Milk Kefir Grains Try Both From Poseymom

I had ordered milk kefir grains from Poseymom awhile back (like years) so decided to try her water kefir, which I had not ever had before. Since she had a combined deal, I ordered the 'set'.Very impressed with the quality, her online instructions, and the taste of the final product. Before, I had to do a couple of cultures of the milk kefir to get the taste right; this time the milk kefir cultured nicely right off the bat.Since it was my first time for the water kefir, I did a couple of cultures before realizing I could do a second culture, no added sugar, and actually make my own "club soda", so I'm sold on it.Excellent product, the fast shipping blew me away, and the quality is unmatched.

9 day update. Milk kefir has become what milk kefir should taste like. Its not overly yeast or sour. Grains have double in amount and are starting to over ferment 1 quart in 24 hours. Water kefir I'm new to. With the last 9 days they went front 1/4 of a cup to about a cup and a half. The 1st ferment about day 6 started to produce some bubbles but now on day 9 if I pick up the jar it realses bubbles like crazy. After 24 hours it still tastes sweet, but has almost a fruity flavor almost a mixture of melon and guava. Its has an odd fermented flavor unlike anything I've tasted not alcohol I brew my own mead and beer and definitely not like yogurt as there is no sourness. Even though there seems to be enough bubbles in the first ferment and its sweet enough I've tried to just seal it for the second ferment. But, it has not produced a carbonation yet. Today I added fruit juice like the instructions said to. I'll will provide an update if it's starts producing a carbonated product. I really enjoy both kefirs. My son on the other hand goes CRAZY for the water kefir and wants it at every meal. And its just the plain flat version as of right now. He will drink the milk kefir but its not his favorite lol. So far I've been very impressed with these grains.Update today when I opened it up with the juice added it was carbonated.

I ordered the water and milk kefir combo, it arrived quite hot from shipping, the days had been 97 degrees. The kefir is healthy and thriving, excellent product. Thank you for giving instructions to revive the milk kefir, that was very helpful. The water kefir was happy to go right into sugar water. I look forward to making fresh kefir products at home.

Edit 10/17/20I no longer rinse my milk kefir grains off when I start a new back because I got lazy. They have balanced out to be predominantly bacteria now that I mostly keep them refrigerated. The flavor is much less yeasty, which I prefer.Original review:Both products made it safely to Oahu and I cultured both fine after adjusting to the warmer temperatures here. The milk kefir was the easier of the two and actually over-fermented very quickly in the 80 degree weather. Now I only leave the jars out at night when it's a little cooler, place them in the fridge during the day, and rinse my kefir grains in water with each new batch of milk kefir to keep the yeast in check.The water kefir was more finicky and only started flourishing after I switched from tap water to filtered water. I also had issues with it being too yeasty so I mostly fridge-fermented that. I tried second ferments with juice and found I best liked it with ginger, lemon, and additional sugar for fizz. Homemade ginger ale if you will. In the end, I stopped making the water kefir as I'm not a fan of sweet drinks even if it means a probiotic boost. I dried the grains out and have them in my freezer in case I ever want to give it another go.

The milk grains have worked spectacularly. I'm very happy with the results. The water grains have been a disappointment. I had good results the first time I used them, but nothing since then. I don't know what happened because I did everything exactly the same as the first batch. I sent an email weeks ago to the seller but never heard back. Hence, 5 stars for milk and 1 for water.

I was pretty stressed out when I saw the shipping was late on this package as it was live and in hot weather, and I wasn't going to be home if it came any later than the day I received it, so I was disappointed with the late arrival. When it did arrive, the packaging was also disappointing, though from what I've read this is how kefir is usually shipped, with the tight plastic baggies. I'm not sure if having it shipped with a cold pack in a larger Tupperware-type container with more milk would have kept it in better condition, but that would have been my choice. The milk grains either didn't travel well or they weren't great to start with.Water grains hold up extremely well and these ones were good when I received them, but the milk grains were very sad, watery, and loose. They were terribly difficult to removed from the plastic packaging. The water grains were not a problem at all. I rinsed the water grains and added them to filtered water with brown sugar.I did not rinse the milk grains since they were so small, added them to a container of whole milk, and rested them in the fridge. The water grains were ready to go the next day and I have been enjoying delicious water kefir since. The milk grains have slowly come back around, and today over a week after I received them I enjoyed the first batch of milk kefir. It takes time to get it to bounce back and that's why water kefir is so wonderful to have on hand. I would say stick with the milk kefir, it needs daily care, and they love lots of whole milk to really get back to where they need to be.