Tibi limo

For all of us who need to have the occasional bun or flan, there is a much healthier alternative. Probiotic lemonade with low sugar content, nicely spiked and tastes great.

It's made with water kefir, which you'll probably know as tibi crystals.

Fermented but without symptoms

Although they are fermented, they do not smell specifically, do not have a sharp acidity like kombucha and resemble a fine cider. They are thus palatable to children and fermentation laymen alike.

Often used in good restaurants as a non-alcoholic alternative to wine pairings, organic hackers purposely replenish their gut cast by drinking them and the rest of us feel good about them. And that's mostly because we're having something lively instead of the familiar can.

Quite fun production

We make tibi lemonade from good sweetened water (approx. 65g of sugar per 1l) with a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria. Similar to, say, kombucha, only instead of a slimy pancake, similarly slimy transparent crystals are used.

The water should be skimmed or filtered (so that there is no chlorine in it), but should not be too soft - kefir feeds on minerals.

During the primary fermentation, kefir crystals and figs are added to the sweetened water to enhance the presence of minerals. We leave it at room temperature and with air access for about two days to ferment. This will naturally reduce the sugar content to about 30g per litre and increase the acid content.

Then we strain the water from the crystals, save them for the next batch and the fun begins.

Flavouring with garbage, for example

The second stage of fermentation opens up endless possibilities. Thanks to the taste-neutral base, we can add anything to the fermented tibi water. Fresh or dried fruits, vegetables, purees, syrups, herbs, mushrooms, pine needles, branches, just about anything that has some flavour and aroma. Some combinations and quantities will be inedible, others perfect.

We have different flavors every now and then. A few thoughtful ones, and a lot of spontaneous ones. We also try to use up the various waste from the freshies, there's a lot of flavor and goodness left in the peels and pips. But we still have a lot of catching up to do, complete zero-waste and circularity is still a big bite of the future for us.

Tibi water with the selected ingredients is then closed for the next day or two in the fridge. There it will either paint the inside or we will be able to take it out, drain the ingredients and pour it.

Try it too

If you like to play, catch Dusan Pavelka at Jungmaňák. He'll give you tibi crystals and your home experiments can begin. Drink in moderation and remember it's a live drink. It can escape from the glass itself through the lid or even through thick glass, so be careful.

Something more for experts

Our tibini contains this yeast:

Hanseniaospora valbyensis, Lachancea fermentati, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Zygotorulaspora florentina

And then these bacteria:

Lactobacillus, L. brevis, L. casei, L. hilgardii, L. hordei, L. nagelii, Leuconostoc, L. citreum, L. mesenteroides, Acetobacter, A. fabarum, A. orientalis, S. lactis and Streptococcus (don't worry, it's not the pathological species that cause infection)