What Is Tibicos (Water Kefir)? Origins, Taste and How It's Made

3 hours ago

3 min read

Tiny translucent grains, a little sugar water and a couple of days of patience. Here is everything you wanted to know about tibicos, the naturally sparkling drink also known as water kefir.

So, what is tibicos?

Tibicos is a naturally sparkling drink made by fermenting sugared water with tibicos grains. You will also see it called water kefir, sugary kefir grains or simply tibi. It is light, gently tart, a little fruity and naturally fizzy, a bit like a homemade lemonade that has come alive. Unlike kombucha, there is no tea involved, so it is naturally caffeine-free.

The grains are not grains

Despite the name, tibicos grains have nothing to do with cereals. They are small, translucent, crystal-like clusters, about the size of a pea or smaller, built by a community of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts living together. The bacteria make the grains themselves, weaving a soft, jelly-like matrix out of the sugar they eat. Then everyone shares the work: the yeasts bring the bubbles, the bacteria bring the gentle tang.

Happy grains grow. Feed them well and they multiply from batch to batch, which is why tibicos has always travelled the same way: shared from one kitchen to the next.

Ragi tibicos (water kefir) home brewing kit with tibicos grains

A drink with a mysterious past

Nobody knows exactly where tibicos comes from, and that is part of its charm. The most popular story traces it back to Mexico, where the grains are said to form on the pads of the Opuntia cactus, in its sugary sap. From there it spread around the world under all kinds of names, from tibicos to Japanese water crystals or California bees. Scientists in Europe started describing the grains at the end of the 19th century, but home brewers had been passing them around long before anyone wrote them down.

How tibicos is made

The method is beautifully simple:

Dissolve sugar in water and add the tibicos grains, often with a piece of dried fruit and a slice of lemon.
Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature for one to two days. The grains feed on the sugar and turn the water lightly sparkling and tangy.
Strain out the grains, which are ready to start the next batch.
Bottle the liquid with fruit, flowers or herbs for a second fermentation, which adds flavour and builds up the bubbles.

At Ragi, we flavour our tibicos with organic fruits or organic flowers, and let the fermentation do the rest.

Tibicos or kombucha?

Both are naturally sparkling fermented drinks, but they are quite different. Kombucha is brewed from sweet tea with a SCOBY, the jelly-like disc, and has a deeper, more vinegary taste. Tibicos needs no tea, ferments faster and tastes lighter and fruitier. Want the full comparison? We wrote a whole article about it: Kombucha vs. Tibicos.

How to store it

Live drinks like to be kept cold. Keep your tibicos in the fridge: unopened, it keeps for up to 12 months. Once opened, enjoy it within a week, well chilled, and close the bottle between glasses so it keeps its bubbles.

Good to know: tibicos is a living drink, so a little sediment at the bottom of the bottle is completely normal. Tilt the bottle gently rather than shaking it.