Hello friends! Today I’m sharing my easy method for making tibicos or water kefir drink along with my best tips for no-fuss maintenance of tibicos grains, including how to rest them in between batches if you want a break.

This method and recipe are scalable to any size production you like. You can make a small amount as I do (700ml batches at a time), or you can make a whole lot more! Think about how much you are likely to drink, how many people are in your household, and scale this recipe up or down to suit your needs.

The post below contains my full process with photographs to demonstrate the steps along the way.

This post contains affiliate links.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Before you start…

What is tibicos?
Tibicos, or water kefir grains (I like to call them by their traditional Mexican name ‘Tibicos’) are small, cellulose scobys (SCOBY - symbiotic culture of bacterias and yeasts) that when placed into sugared water or other sweet liquid, ferment the liquid producing a lovely, lemony tasting, probiotic carbonated beverage. Like many other lacto-fermented drinks and foods, tibicos fermentation produces lactic acid, a tiny amount of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Are they the same as milk kefir grains?
No, while they ferment liquids in similar way, tibicos grains are different scobys than milk kefir grains and can only be used to ferment non-dairy based liquids. Sugared water is the most common medium for the initial tibicos fermentation, however coconut water and non-dairy milks can also be cultured with the grains. The second fermentation of tibicos drink (where secondary flavours and carbonation under pressure are often introduced) can be done with other fruits and juices - more on that below.

What do you need?

1. A tablespoon (or more) of healthy tibicos/water kefir grains
   Finding another tibicos fermenter local to you is the best way to source the grains, but if that’s not possible they are available online via specialty outlets (these are great) or though local trading posts.

2. A wide-neck jar to ferment the drink
   I use a 700ml Weck jar, you can read about where I source my jars on this page, I also recommend coffee jars or any other large jar you can find (check op-shops, they usually have many!). Your jar doesn’t have to be straight-sided like mine, but it is handy to have a wide mouth to make it easier to stir the jar and remove fruit pieces, raisins etc.

3. A funnel and fine mesh strainer
   These are necessary for straining the tibicos grains from the first fermenting jar into the second fermenting container or bottle (see process photos below). A fine mesh strainer is important to ensure that you catch the smaller, developing grains along with the larger ones.

4. Water and sugar
   I make my tibicos drink using filtered tap water and raw sugar. Tibicos likes some minerals to stay healthy, so using unrefined sugars in your mixture is helpful. Molasses can also be added in small amounts occasionally to give your grains a healthy mineral boost, but beware that too many minerals can give the grains and liquid a thicker/slimy texture, so a balance is needed. I find that my grains are very healthy with the use of regular raw sugar and the occasional addition of some rapadura/brown sugar or a touch of molasses. If your grains do become over-mineralised and slimy, just rinse them well in water, strain, then use as normal.

5. Sultanas, raisins or other dried fruits (for the first ferment)
   These are optional, but I find adding some sultanas or other small dried fruits (such as dried cranberries or sliced dried apricots) helps me to determine the activity of my tibicos ferment by the way they float up as the liquid carbonates. Other fruits can be added to tibicos ferments, however, I like to keep my first fermentation simple with just water, sugar and a few sultanas. Adding fruits in with the grains for the first fermentation can make it harder to keep the grains clean and free of debris. My advice is to save other ingredients for your second ferments or use raisins or sultanas which stay intact and are easy to remove.

6. Other fruits, juices, ginger etc. to flavour the second ferment
   Once the tibicos grains have fermented the sugared water for the ‘first ferment’ the grains are then removed (see the photos below) and more fruits, juices and other ingredients can be added to the liquid to add a whole range of interesting flavours. Some of the favourites I’ve been adding lately include raspberries, morello cherries, lemon juice and grated ginger - but the possibilities are endless! Most often I add some kind of sliced fruit and/or juice or ginger, but the tibicos drink is just lovely without additional flavours as well if you want to keep it simple.

The process, in photos:

What if you need a break?

Tibicos grains can be stored for weeks in a fresh sugar-water solution in the fridge. I make a fresh, smaller jar of sugar water with 1 tablespoon of water and about 250-300g of water, dissolve the sugar and add in the grains. This goes into my fridge for short to medium term storage if I need a break, or if I already have a good amount of tibicos drink made and ready in the fridge. When you are ready to recommence the process, just strain the grains and begin again with your larger jar and fresh sugar water.

I’ll do a separate post soon with instructions for drying and storing tibicos grains for longer term storage.

Thank you for reading! Please share with others who may be interested, and let me know if you have any questions or comments below.

If you would like to support my work you can ‘buy me a coffee’ here (big thanks to all of you who have :)

To comment:

1. Type your comment and click ‘post comment’

2. Enter your first name or an initial/symbol (any character will do the trick - it just needs to have something in the name field)

3. Click ‘comment as guest’ and your comment will be published.