Cultures for Health Milk Kefir Grains | DIY Frothy Dairy Non-GMO Probiotic Drink for Stronger Gut Health | Limitless Heirloom Style Starter | Easy to Flavor or Add to Recipes | Bulgaros De Leche

It is true that only a few grains can be found in the package, as the others stated. But I find that it worked out well, they do the job to produce plenty enough kefir for about two person a day. The kefir is not drinkable after the first day, but with the second milk it is already good tasting and thickened consitency.Depends on the kind of milk I use it produces different thickness of kefir.I've tried buffalo milk, and it makes much thicker kefir than with goatmilk.I keep the jar in a warm place up on a top of a cabinet, the warmth deffinietly helps to set it, it is always perfect at the 24 hr mark.I'm only making kefir for about a week now, and I've noticed that more established the grains become, thicker and sourer the kefir becomes.So I'm happy with it, I don't know if I would need more than this amount, it really does the job, nicely I must say. For those who compared it that this small amount does not make the same kefir taste and thickness as they know kefir to be: if they refering to store bought kefir,, that is not the same as this.Store bought kefir is not cultured with kefir grains, milk is injected with cultures that is found in kefir. Anybody can look this up,, for example on wikipedia. I want to add to my review because I found success with them and from reading other peoples reviews many could not succeed. Some people close the top with lids while they are culturing.Forgetting that thise are living cultures.The bacteria/yeast inhales and exhales, they need oxigen for proper functioning and proper fermentation.So one needs to make sure oxygen can get into the jar continuosly, so best to cover it with cheese cloth and rubber band.Glass jar is good, plastic and other things like metal can effect it.Keep it in warm place, like top of the cabinet. I shake mine up a few times in the 24 hr period, to ensure even fermentation.I think when the thickened milk starts to separate from the whey,that is when it's starts to be good.I shake it together, let it sit for 2-3 more hrs, shake it again and ready.

I bought these grains (Cultures for Health - CFH) during the second week of August 2016. The extremely small amount of grains you get is a joke. I had several issues getting good kefir, including poor texture and taste, and lack of growth in the grains. I made several adjustments, including different amounts of milk and different culturing times, and still had difficulty. I ended up getting another order of grains during the first week of September 2016, and after activating them, I combined both sets of grains. I have continued culturing through early October, again making several adjustments (including adjusting ambient temperature) to try to get a good batch of kefir. The grains have made very minimal growth and could barely produce 2 cups of okay kefir, still lacking in texture. I did get a few decent batches of kefir over the course of almost 2 months, but it seemed to be by chance and did not appear to be directly related to anything differently I did, because I could not reproduce the same kefir while keeping all the other factors the same. I was hopeful and really gave these grains a chance, but after almost 2 whole months of investing a lot of time and effort, I only have 1 TEASPOON of grains (a heaping teaspoon, and that is with 2 orders of grains). I then bought from a competitor, and am amazed at the superior quality of their grains. The taste and texture is excellent and significantly better than CFH—you can't even compare the two. What I achieved after about 1 week with the competitor's grains, I could not achieve after 2 months with CFH grains. The competitor's grains grew from 2 TBS (what I ordered) to 3/4 cup in ~ 2 weeks (14 batches). Now that is what I call healthy, active grains. Maybe others are having a good experience with these (CFH) grains, and if they are, good for them. But I wonder if people who gave 5 stars for CFH actually know how amazing kefir can be. Don't get me wrong, CFH grains do turn the milk into kefir, but the overall quality is poor and far inferior to at least one competitor that I tried. I did contact CFH with questions and they were prompt and helpful, and they did send me a free order when I had issues. But I am still dissatisfied with the poor quality of their product. The pictures attached show the amount I grew with TWO orders of grains after ~2 months of culturing. (one order was cultured for less than 2 months as it arrived later).

I’m very satisfied with this purchase. The product is high quality, easy to use, and offers great value for the price. Shipping was fast, and everything arrived in perfect condition. I highly recommend it!

This was my first time attempting Kefir. As a matter of fact, I never even had Kefir, so I didn't even know what to expect. I went through the 7-day get started process. the first couple of day, I was very disappointed. The taste was horrible. But I figured I'd let it run it's course. By day #5, I was shock at what I saw. The Kefir was as thick as Yogurt and the taste changed dramatically for the better. By day seven I had a very think creamy kefir that I needed a spoon to eat. I added a dash of salt, a teaspoon of honey to a bowl of it, and boy did I enjoy it. The one mistake I made was I left the grains in the kefir for another 24 hours after enjoying that bowl. The next night it suddenly became very sour. When I searched Ai, it said that I should have strained out the grains the night before if I enjoyed the taste then. However, Ai also said that when sour, it is more probiotic. I am still enjoying it. The next batch is already on the counter getting ready for when this one is done. One thing of note about these grains. According to Ai, the fact that I have a think kefir is a sign they were very healthy grains! I highly recommend, not to mention the fact that it is great for gut health. Tonight, not only did I add salt and honey, I also added Hemp hearts, and ground flax seed! A nutrient‑dense probiotic power shake! In the photo, the one on the left is the new batch just beginning. The one on the right is done and going into the refrig!

Disappointed. I very, very rarely write reviews and even more rarely write a bad one. I have purchased this product 3 times over the years. The previous 2 times the kefir grains made lovely, creamy, fresh-tasting kefir. The only reason I had to replace my previous set of kefir grains was because I had been traveling for longer than I had planned and so they were in hibernation in my refrigerator for too long. However, there was something very, very wrong with the most recent set of kefir grains that I purchased from Cultures for Health. Something is not quite right with this batch. I meticulously followed the Cultures for Health steps as indicated in their videos online. I used ultra-clean vessels (used to work in scientific research and know well what clean glassware is), purchased new organic whole milk, kept the vessels in the suggested temperature range, kept a daily log, etc.. The taste of this kefir is off, not just sour, but bad. Since I began drinking this kefir, I've had extreme fatigue. Needless to say, I've dumped a bunch of kefir down the drain. I honestly think this product may be a health hazard, and would like to know what standards and INDEPENDENT LABORATORY checks are done to check the microorganisms/bacteriophages that are in these grains. The care that went into "awakening" these kefir grains from their dehydrated state was considerable. It was not an inexpensive purchase for what amounted to be perhaps a half teaspoon of kefir grains. These along with thequantity of milk I needed to purchase to get the kefir grains out of their freeze-dried state was also considerable. This product is unpredictable, and quite possibly a health threat. A 66% success rate depicting my experience with this product purchased three times is not acceptable. Would you trust your child with a swim instructor who boasted a 66% success? I'll keep drinking kefir, but I will be buying STANDARDIZED bottles of it from Whole Foods.

Changing my review from 1 star to 4. There was a TERRIBLE smell for the first 3 dehydration rounds. Thought the kefir grains were bad. By 4th round kifer was great/normal. Wish they would have warned about this. Was ready to throw out the grains... working perfectly now and kefir is edible. So thankful I kept going for 3+ rounds of rehydration.

It’s been 5 months since i bought the kefir grains. I followed the directions and in 24 hours i got my first 32 oz jar of milk kefir. Made with cow’s whole milk the result was a creamy, tart and tasty beneficial drink. In the beginning to make more I would carefully use a screen filter to filter out the grains. Nowadays, I just wait until the jar gets down to its last 20% and I just add more whole milk and it works perfectly. I wouldn’t recommend doing this until the milk kefir grains is very abundant and the fermentation process becomes faster. I live in Hawaii so when I leave it out at room temperature, it only takes 12 hours to be fermented to the point that I like. I ferment it until I start to see a little bit of the whey protein separation then I put it in the refrigerator. From there, it continues to separate but is slowed down dramatically, and before it can separate extremely, I would have finished the jar and added new milk.. when I take it out of the fridge I make sure to shake the jar to remix the whey protein into it before I drink it and the result is a nice thick creamy milk kefir. I also started to experiment with it.. when I make dishes that uses yogurt as a binder with chicken for example, I replace it with some kefir and the result is great. I also used an instant pot yogurt setting to make kefir yogurt instead of greek yogurt which i would usually do and that was also successful. I would recommend this to everyone. Most importantly it helped me to have consistent healthy digestion, limiting stomaches and other negative digestive Issues.

I have a had great luck with this product. The seller has been super helpful and I had achieved success!!! (It can a day for him to reply...but like most of us...we cant be on the computer or phone all day) I started by healing my grains as instructed. I put them in fresh room temp milk every 12 hours (a cup of milk, I used organic milk from the grocery store) in a warm dark place. I removed them from the milk with a little plastic strainer from the dollar store. Rinsed them off with filtered water. It takes a few days for the grains to increase. Somedays I had what appeared to be new ones and other days they just doubled in size. I found that they can be stuck in a thick milk/yogurt type goo at the bottom of the jar. I just scooped that out into the strainer and rinsed off gently. After 6 days ( I did 6, 4 would have been enough), I strained off the milk and used the kefir (I started with about a cup and a half of milk). I let mine sit for 8 hours. It is a bit thicker than milk, not much thicker though. Mine has very little smell (warm milk/buttermilk smell) when I strained it. After I chilled it, it had a sour milk smell. This is normal. I can not drink it straight. I don't like the flavor. I put about an 1/8 of a cup in a fruit smoothie every day. The flavor does not come through. That amount of kefir last me several days (for two people) . I store my grains in a jar ,in a cup of milk, in the fridge (a sealed jar). If it sits for a week, I add a splash of fresh milk. When I go to use them, I strain and rinse them, then just put the back in room temp milk and start again. I now have about a tablespoon and a half of grains. When I have 2 tablespoons, I will divide in two and only use half and store other half in the fridge. I will give these away or just rotate using my two portions to keep all of them alive and fed. I also want to make coconut milk kefir. The seller advised that I grow them to the point of the two portions and use one for the coconut. Apparently coconut milk does not have all the components that regular milk has and the grains can not feed as well in coconut milk. So I will use my additional portion just in case they don't do well in the coconut milk. I have tried to write about the things that were not entirely clear to me in the instructions. Oh...btw...the grains don't look like much when you get them. Just empty out packet contents into milk and let it go. It will take a day or two for them to look like tiny pieces of cauliflower. No rinsing with tap water. Bottled water,I wouldn't trust for this. I used R/O filter but distilled or brita type filter would do. Be patient and follow the instructions. The seller is soooo helpful. I had may a good chat via email with him ( I think it was a "him"). First couple of days using the kefir. My digestion was a bit "rumbly" but very much improved. Rumbling has stopped. I seem to be less tolerant of fried foods. This is how my system was when I was younger. No complaints from me on that. I am glad to have a deterrent from my unhealthy eating habits. I have a dairy tolerance issue and the one day I did not have my smoothie, Ice cream upset my stomach. If I have my smoothie,it seems that my dairy intolerance is in check. I love that the kefir shows its promise so quickly. I hope that you give this a try... I have been very pleased. Good luck Jax

I live in a hot climate area and I leave the kefir in a glass container in a shady area in my kitchen and I have kefir within less than 12 hours and I can add less milk so it becomes yoghurt :) I love it !!

First time in doing milk kefir. I was hesitant because i see a lot starting on activated and this one is dehydrated and i was not sure if I'll be successful. I followed the instructional video. I used whole milk 3.8% 1 cup used coffee filter to cover the glass. I only used plastic to stir and left it for 24 hrs. On the 2nd day i transferred to new glass with same amount of milk. After every 8 hrs i shaked the glass a bit. Before 24 hrs it was starting to get thicker So 3rd day i used 1 1/2cups of new milk. It got so thicker. So today i used 2 cups. I guess i could say it is a success activating the milk kefir grain. Now i can make my own milk kefir at home. Thanks a lot.

الكمية قليلة وناشفة جدا مما يتطلب عدة مرات لتنشيطها بعد 10 ايام من محاولة تنشيط الفطر(granula) بقيت جافةوهذا دليل على موتها وعدم فعاليتها علما بأنني عملت بها قبل عدة سنوات ولدي الخبرة الكافية للتعامل معها وللأسف بعد هذه المدة لا بمكنك ارجاع المنتج او استبداله

Great product, clear instructions, a fair price, patience is needed, I'm five batches in, all excl. batch #1 are tasty and healthy! Admittedly the grains haven't grown massively (I'm using full fat milk from Spinnies but it's homogenized and pasteurised, so still workable but not the best), 24hrs is enough (in our hot heat) now they're activated. All in all, after lots of research, this was the best option on paper. And it's proving to be the same in reality!

These kefir grains did not produce viable kefir. The instructions said to place the dehydrated kefir grains in a 1/2 cup of milk, wait for 24 hrs (or until thickened), and increase the milk by a 1/2 cup if the milk thickens. If it doesn't thicken, it states to simply replace it with a 1/2 cup of milk. It also said that you should be able to increase the milk up to 4 cups within 3 to 7 days. This is an incredibly simple process, however, I have been progressively attempting to revive my grains and produce kefir for about a month. I finally decided to compost them because I realized I could find some for much cheaper from a local person and I was wasting a lot of money on milk that was just getting funky tasting and off. Now, here's the thing with fermentation. Microbes ferment food, not people. Yes, you want to make sure you aren't applying heat to your grains (this will kill them). Moreover, you want to stay on top of feeding them. Other than that, there isn't really anything else that should get in the way of producing good kefir at home. Thus, I blame the grains. They definitely weren't dead. The milk was bubbling, just not souring or thickening. I tested the PH to determine if there was a change and there never was. I would have expected some change within a month of trying. Getting live grains from someone local made a lot more sense in the long run and I recommend that people go that route rather than buying dehydrated grains online. There are so many poor reviews for this product that I really should have known better than to order it. I have attempted to contact the seller for a refund, however, I haven't received a response.