I searched around the forums and the general idea seems to be “health food shop”. But that’s kind of vague (all health food shops? what does a Taiwanese health food shop look like anyway?). So I was wondering if anyone has a tried and true method of obtaining healthy kefir grains, short of ordering them online and having them shipped across the world.
You can get something similar here, it’s not exactly kefir, but it’s a kind of soured/fermented milk product, but runnier than yoghurt.
It’s sold as Active Lactic Culture and the packages looks something like this depending on the brand.
Expect to pay about NT$250 for a pack of 10 sachets which each makes 1l of the stuff. You’ll find it in the refrigerator in most health food shops here. You can usually make a few more batches from what you made from the sachets, but it doesn’t seem to go on forever. Also, it’s done in room temperature, but it doesn’t seem to be happy if it’s too hot or too cold. I couldn’t make it set here in the winter and I’ve had problems in the summer sometimes.
From the packaging it seems like that Active Lactic Culture is just various yogurt producing bacteria mixed together. It’s probably a nice product but it’s definitely not kefir.
It’s not yoghurt, that’s for sure, as it’s way too runny to be yoghurt and it doesn’t need high temperatures to solidify, it’s more like Swedish Filmjölk, but not quite.
You can buy yoghurt culture here as well, but I’ve seen prices of NT$500 and up for that which is insane.
Does anyone have or know where I can find true Kefir Grains or kombucha culture for making kefir and kombucha tea with?
ordering them from the u.s. would cost a lot more than i desired :\
thanks in advance,
-Michael
Did you find ?
No, that was a bump in order to be able to merge a redundant new thread with an existing thread on the same topic. It’s hard to merge redundant new threads by, for instance, people who haven’t searched for a topic (or who searched but didn’t find one) with existing threads unless the latter are floating near the top of the forum.
I live in Chang Hua and I am also looking to get some kefir grains. Does any one on here have grains that they would be willing to mail to me? COD postage would be fine.
I live in Nangang District of Taipei, and would like to try making Kefir? Anyone have grains to share? COD postage is OK with me…
Hello - wondering if anyone ever found live kombucha culture here? How about water kefir grains?
Thanks!
You can look online for kefir users groups, websites ( avoid the commercial ones that sell powder) … people that have them will send you some for postal fee mostly … then start and grow your own, enjoy your kefir from milk or soy milk
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Thanks, months ago I did contact some sharers listed in Taiwan, but never received a reply. I agree with you about the commercial powders - I’m looking for live cultures - specifically kombucha and water kefir. Thanks for answering!
I ended up getting grains from a professor at National Taiwan University in the Department of Animal Science and Technology.
I grew them for a while but they died off. Growing them was a real hassle especially when you consider how volitile the weather here can be. (The optimal temperature is room temperature where “room temperature” means 20 to 22 degrees Celsius … )
Really old thread, but if someone needs kefir grains, i have very healthy kefir grains that grow quickly. Too quickly, i don’t know what to do with the excess. Add my line: dabaoya
I also have kombucha scobies.
Seriously, I had them for a while but they died. Ever since I’m looking to get new ones and make fizzy soy yogurt.
If you want to ferment soy with kefir grains, then you have to alternate; meaning that you put them in milk mainly and put them in soy milk sometimes. If you put them in soy milk all the time, they are likely to die slowly.
I alternated with some sugary water sometimes. And milk ones in while.
I’d like to start my own kefir grains culture. Can I pick some up from you?
Hi, if the offer still stands I would be happy to get some grains from you