Product review: Little Cossack water kefir

I had heard a lot about water kefir but couldn’t picture it in my head. For me, kefir had to be milky and with a consistency similar to yoghurt. It turns out water kefir is similar to kombucha: lightly fizzy and with a sourish flavour.

This particular brand, however, was a lot sweeter than the kombuchas I’ve tried. The ingredients are: water, organic raw sugar, fresh organic ginger juice, organic ginger powder, organic black strap molasses, naturally made baking soda, kefir, infused with organic dried figs, and organic lemons. A 375 ml bottle ($5.60 regular price, $4.42 with discount at Dr Earth) has 33.5 grams of sugar! That’s what happens when most of the sugar-containing ingredients are added after the fermentation process. I’m not sure if that offsets in some way the beneficial probiotic effects of the kefir.