Homemade Kefir Blended with Honey, Cinnamon, and Cacao - GaiaYoga Gardens, Lower Puna, Far East Big Island, Hawai'i - Friday, May 5, 2023

Warm greetings all! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙

Today I want to share a simple and delicious recipe for a homemade kefir-honey-cinnamon-cacao blend that I began making, and fell in love with, several months ago. I've been making my own kefir for quite some time now (almost a year), fermented in organic, raw, whole cow milk, and I've been loving it! The longer I let it ferment, the tarter and tangier it gets, which I love! I always have two rounds fermenting at the same time (a half gallon and a quart), usually two days apart, and I strain out a new batch ever other day or two.

One particular combination that is utterly exquisite is to blend my homemade kefir, along with some local raw honey, organic cinnamon powder, and organic raw cacao powder, and then refrigerate it to get it cold. The flavor balance makes my mouth very happy indeed! On the subject on how much of each ingredient to use, I will say that you should experiment and find a balance that suits your particular palate. Start small and add a bit more at a time, tasting as you go, until you find your perfect ratio. I do everything by eye and intuition.

Kefir, which is basically super yogurt, is incredibly beneficial for the entire gastrointestinal system (and therefor fhe immune system). It has a whole array of beneficial bacteria and yeasts (10-13 or so when fermented in pasteurized milk, and probably past 30 when fermented in raw milk) that support our bodies in wondeful ways.

The process to make this yummy blend is super simple and quick! Let's take a look!

To start, I get a metal collinder, a metal bowl just larger than the collinder, raw honey, cinnamon, cacao, and the jar of kefir that is ready to strain out.

The first step is to pour the jar of kefir in the collinder that is nested in the bowl.

Step two is to spin the collinder at a 45-degree angle, keeping the same sides up and down. As you continue to do this, the liquid kefir will drain into the bowl below, leaving the soft and rubbery white kefir grains in the collinder.

When most of the liquid kefir had drained out, the kefir grains tend to come into a clump as you continue to rotate the collinder.

Once most of the liquid is drained off, I put the kefir grains that remained in the collinder back in the jar. I then add a new round of milk to the jar, to begin the fermentation process again. I don't clean the inside of the jar, as the sides are covered with beneficial culture that can help inoculate the milk. Two days of fermentation is all that is usually required with the number of kefir grains I have.

Here's the quart of kefir that I strained out (every other time I strain out a half gallon), that goes into a blender with the other ingredients.

Add the cinnamon, cacao, and honey to your taste. The amounts of each would be approximately one teaspoon to one tablespoon, but it would depend on your individual tastes. I like to keep the honey conservative, so that I reach the perfect balance between sweet and tart. I usually add a little less cinnamon and cacao, but I think I got excited with doing a post about it, so I was slightly heavy handed. Start with less, and work your way up, until you reach the perfect ratio.

I blend it for one minute.

The last step is to pour the blended yumminess into a jar, put a lid on it, and put it in the fridge for while to get it nice and cold. As I type this, this batch that I made has been sitting in the fridge for about two and a half hours, so it's ready to drink, which I'm going to do as soon as I publish this post!

That's my super simple and yummy homemade kefir recipe that I totally adore! I hope that you found this post easy to follow and understand, as well as interesting and engaging, and maybe even inspiring in terms of what you'd like to try for yourself! I'm tagging my good friend @ironshield, as he's always mentioning how he'd like to try this combo. Here ya go Benjamin! Enjoy, brother! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙

All photos were taken with my Motorola G Power Android Phone.

Thank you all so much who have helped me get to where I am today, and allowing me to share more of the beauty and magic from my life and my world with you, and for your continuous appreciation and support! I am truly deeply grateful! 😁🙏💚✨🤙

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