96-hour ferment
Slow-fermented in small batches, rather than mass-produced.
Why water kefir
A living, naturally fermented alternative to ordinary soft drinks
Six reasons it’s worth keeping in the fridge, and a short list of what isn’t in the bottle.
Six reasons
Why people keep it in the fridge
Live cultures
Bottled without heat treatment.
No dairy
Unlike milk kefir.
No caffeine
No tea, at any stage.
Lightly sparkling
Carbonated by fermentation, not gas.
Simple ingredients
No stevia. No sugar alcohols.
The ferment
Four days is the whole difference
Most fizzy drinks are mixed and carbonated in an afternoon. Ours takes four days, and the four days are the product.
Live kefir cultures go into sweetened water with organic fruit or root, and they work. They feed on the sugar. They produce acids, which is where the dry, tart edge comes from. They produce carbon dioxide, which has nowhere to go in a sealed bottle - that’s the fizz.
Stop it early and it’s sweet and flat. Ninety-six hours is where we want it.
Live in the bottle
Never pasteurised
Most shelf-stable drinks are heat-treated at the end. It kills everything, which is what makes them shelf-stable.
We don’t do it, because heat-treating a ferment at the end undoes the four days that came before it. The cultures remain present when the bottle is filled.
That’s also why every bottle is packed chilled and needs to stay in your fridge. It’s a live product with a fixed life, not a can that sits in a cupboard.
The short list
What’s not in it
No tea
so no caffeine, in any flavour.
No milk
so no dairy, at any stage.
No artificial flavours or colours.
The colour in the bottle is the fruit.
No artificial sweeteners.
No stevia, no sugar alcohols.
No added carbonation.
It comes from the vessel, not a gas line.
No long ingredient list.
Water, organic cane sugar, live kefir cultures, and the fruit or root for that flavour.
The sugar is what the cultures feed on. Most of it is gone before the bottle is filled.
The difference
Not kombucha. Not milk kefir.
All three are fermented. They start from completely different things.
Water kefir
Kombucha
Milk kefir
Made from
Water and sugar
Sweetened tea
Milk
Caffeine
None
Usually, from the tea
None
Dairy
None
None
Yes
Taste
Light, clean, tart
Sharper, vinegary
Thick, sour, creamy
Texture
Lightly sparkling, clear
Sparkling
Thick, pourable
Kombucha’s culture produces more acetic acid - the same acid that makes vinegar taste like vinegar. That’s the note people either like or don’t.
Water kefir’s cultures produce mostly lactic acid instead. Clean and tart rather than sour and sharp.
Who it’s for
Who tends to drink it
People avoiding caffeine.
There’s none in it, so it works in the evening.
People avoiding dairy.
Water kefir is the dairy-free one of the two kefirs.
People who found kombucha too sharp.
This sits noticeably gentler.
People who’ve stopped drinking.
Sparkling, dry, and it holds its own in a glass at the table.
People who want something other than a soft drink
in the afternoon. That’s the swap we hear about most.
Provenance
Made in Ballinrobe
Every bottle is fermented, bottled and packed by hand in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo. Not blended elsewhere. Not produced under contract.
The cultures live here. Every batch is filled here.
The range
Four flavours, one ferment
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Not sure where to start? Organic Lemon & Ginger is the most familiar of the four.
The short version
Fermented for 96 hours. Nothing rushed.
Four flavours, made by hand in the west of Ireland. Packed chilled, order 3 for 15% off.