Milk kefir from grains vs sachets comparison

Years ago I had milk kefir grains.  We made kefir most days, and we did this for years.  Other than the cost of the milk, it was very cheap.  

Making milk kefir from grains is very simple.  You put some kefir grains in milk, leave for a day or so, then strain the grains out and drink the liquid.  It doesn't get a lot simpler than that.  

I'm no expert when it comes to kefir, but I don't need to be.  For some reason, people try to make kefir making more expensive, and to appear more complicated, than it needs to be.  Milk kefir originally comes from the Caucasus mountains in Russia.  For centuries kefir was made by nomadic people, they put milk kefir grains in a goat skin or horse skin bag, and added some milk.  Later they drank some of the liquid and added more milk.  Nothing was precise, and this went so well that it was kept up for generations.  

Milk kefir is demonstrated to have a lot of health benefits, so it is worth drinking if you like the taste.  I have heard a lot about kefir starter satchels, I have also seen bottled kefir for sale in supermarkets, so I did some research to compare them with kefir made from grains and thought I would share what I found. 

My milk kefir grains

Home Made Kefir vs Store Bought

I read about store bought kefir not being 'real' kefir, so I did a little research.  Supermarket kefir is a poor version that pales in comparison to the real thing, but is far more uniform than real kefir.  It is often made by adding a small number of isolated cultures to milk.  This results in a drink that is very uniform and consistent.  The two species of lactic acid bacteria that differentiate kefir from all other fermented milks, Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Lactobacillus kefiri, can be absent from supermarket kefir flavoured milks.  In my opinion, if either of those microbes is absent, then it should not be called kefir.

Real kefir made from grains contains a lot more probiotic cultures, both in terms of overall numbers as well as diversity of different cultures.  My kefir is never uniform, it is slightly different day to day, and it changes with the season.  

Store bought kefir is claimed to be slightly healthier than store bought yogurt.  I found the image below on a website.  The claims they are making look good, but are rather unimpressive when compared to milk kefir made using grains.  I will explain this further down the page.

If you are asking which is better, it kind of depends on what you are looking at.  Cost, number of microbial species, abundance of microbes, or the taste and texture of the final product are all factors to consider, I break these down below.

Store bought kefir vs yogurt image from https://lifewaykefir.com/kefir-vs-yogurt/

Consistency vs Claimed Health Benefits vs Cost

Kefir from the supermarket is expensive, and is an ongoing cost.  You buy it, drink it, and buy some more.  Kefir from grains still has an ongoing cost, but it is much lower.  You buy grains, then the ongoing cost is buying milk to make more kefir.  

Based on the anecdotal evidence above, if you want something that is the same every time then store bought is best.  If you are consuming kefir for health benefits, or if cost is an issue, then making it from milk kefir grains is the far better option.  

Milk kefir

Number of Microbial Species

I have also seen satchels of 'kefir starter' for sale.  These are often expensive, and I have heard they are inferior to kefir made from grains.  I was curious about them so I did a little research to compare them to grains. 

Depending on the company producing them, starter sachets often contain very few species of beneficial bacteria and yeasts.  I found one product that claims to only have 5 strains and even some of the 'good' brands claim to only contain 7.  While this is better than most yogurts which usually have only 1 or 2 strains (some can have up to half a dozen), part of the reason people drink milk kefir is because it contains a lot of different probiotic cultures.  

Home made kefir using grains contains far more biota in terms of diversity of the species of microorganisms present.  While this number varies considerably, kefir has been recorded as having 41 species of bacteria and 37 yeasts (a total of 78 different species of microorganisms).  This is more than ten times the amount of species found in good starter sachets and more than six times as many as bottled kefir from the supermarket.  

Based on the above, if you want a lot of diversity in your probiotics, kefir grains is the better option.  

Milk kefir

Colony Forming Units Per Cup

Microbial diversity is important, another thing to consider is the number of colony forming units.  This number is how many live microorganisms (of any kind) are in the end product.  This number is important because many will die on their way through your digestive tract.  The number of colony forming units in sachet made kefir or store bought kefir is often claimed to be a mere 1 billion to 2.5 billion colony forming units per cup.  This small number has been demonstrated to often be far lower in real life than is claimed on packages.  For simplicity, let's assume that this exaggerated higher number is correct.  

Depending on which paper you read (including this paper and another paper), kefir made from grains is said to contain between 100 billion colony forming units per cup up to several trillion colony forming units per cup.  Even the lowest estimate is vastly more than the amount as sachet made or store bought kefir.  

Based on the above it seems if you want a lot of probiotics in your diet, using kefir grains is the better option.  

Kefir grains

Price Comparison

Diversity of probiotics is important, as is the number of live colony forming units, another important consideration is cost.  

The supermarket sells a pack of 5 x sachets (which, after you also buy milk, is said to make up to 25L) for $53 plus the cost of milk.  Another brand which has 2 x sachets and claims to only contain 6 strains sells for a whopping $28 plus the cost of milk.  If you like the taste of satchel kefir, you need to keep buying satchels at this high price forever.  I have heard of people using sachet produced 'kefir' to inoculate milk in the hope of keeping this going long term, apparently it stops working after a few tries.

Milk kefir grains, on the other hand, can be used indefinitely to make as many batches of kefir as you want for the rest of your life.  The grains multiply over time, so you can make more kefir, or give some grains away, or eat some grains, or feed them to chickens, or bury them in the garden.  After the once off cost of grains, you buy milk, maybe a kitchen strainer every ten years, and there is no other cost.  

Financially, kefir grains are far cheaper than starter satchels or supermarket kefir both in the short term and far far cheaper in the medium and long term.  

I don't know how to photograph kefir

Taste and Texture Comparison

Taste is a personal thing.  My kefir can be rather yeasty at times, which I love, or hardly yeast at all at other times.  Satchel and store bought tend not to include yeasts so will not have much of that yeasty taste.  

My kefir tends to get a bit sour at times, perhaps more than I like.  A little honey fixes that.  I assume store bought or satchel would be far less sour as consumers prefer sweeter products.  

The texture of my home made kefir also changes with the seasons and with fermentation time.  Sometimes it is thicker, other times thinner, sometimes slightly bubbly.  Store bought is said to be extremely uniform.

If you are drinking kefir because of its taste or texture, I can't tell you which is better.  You need to try a bunch of types and make some from grains and go with the one you prefer.  

Milk Kefir and Water Kefir

If you like to drink milk kefir, it is absolutely worth making your own and seeing if you like that. Milk kefir made from grains is far healthier and far cheaper than store bought or made from satchels.  If you dislike the taste of kefir made with grains, or if you dislike that it is slightly different each batch, then stop making it and start buying it from the store.

I make milk kefir, and often have extra grains that I can post throughout Australia.  If you are interested, my contact details can be found on my for sale page. 

Related kefir articles and guides

If you are interested in kefir, or fermenting in genera, here are some of my related kefir guides and experiments:

• Simple instructions for making kefir at home - my simple everyday technique
• Milk kefir beginner guide - simple guide on kefir, what to expect, and troubleshooting
• The Weird History of Milk Kefir: Ancient Myths, Scientific Mysteries, and the Woman Who Changed Kefir Forever - the fascinating history of where kefir came from 
• Simple recipe for farmer's cheese (tvorog) from kefir - an easy way to use extra kefir
• Filmjölk vs milk kefir - my experience fermenting and comparing these two cultured milks
• Continuous Brew Kombucha Recipe - my simple and traditional continuous brew method

African violet leaf propagation in water

I grow a few African violets, I think they are nice little plants.  I tend to propagate them by leaf cuttings, and sometimes seeds or even flower stalks, and I usually have good success. 

I propagate them by planting a leaf in soil, and it tends to produce several leaf babies.  I don't use heat, or grow lights, or humidity domes, or hormones, or anything special.  I just cut it off, plant it, treat it like the parent plant, and it produces a few baby plants (albeit slowly).  

I keep hearing how simple African violets are to propagate by putting a leaf in water.  There are plenty of photos of this on the internet which make it look very simple and possibly faster than in soil. 

Growing African violets by putting a leaf in water is simple - yet for some unknown reason I can't do it! 

I propagated all these African violets

Propagating African violets is simple but takes me months, quite often longer than everyone says it should.  If propagating in water is faster I would like to do that.  Water propagation would also take less space than soil.  I can see a few benefits of this method. 

I have one variety that is reluctant to propagate, each time I attempted to propagate its leaf in water it rots.  I have another variety that is far more vigorous and propagates more easily, I figured this would be the one to try in water.  

I put a leaf in water in March 2024.  I set this on the kitchen windowsill next to the parent plant.  I top this up with water when it starts to get lower, and never let it run dry.  

This leaf has not produced any roots, it has not produced any leaf babies, and as of April 2025 it is still alive even though it hasn't really done much.  That is 12 months of sitting in water.  

I have no idea what I am doing wrong.  All the plants in the photos above are from leaf cuttings I grew by planting it in soil.  They are all the same variety as my water attempt, it is a vigorous and simple to grow variety.  I don't understand why I can't propagate them in water. 

Leaf cutting after 12 months

The cut end of the petiole started to callus, which I thought was a good sign, but has done nothing since then.  

I started to wonder if it was too hot or too cold in my house, or if the humidity was wrong.  I don't think that is the issue because plants grow well and leaf cuttings that are planted in soil all work.  

Also, given that this has been here for a year, it should have been through the correct temperature range at some stage.  

12 months, no roots, no leaf babies

The leaf itself still looks alive.  Perhaps it does not look as healthy as it did 12 months ago, but it is still firm and green.

You can see the mother plant in the background, it is blooming happily so the conditions can't be too bad.  If the mother plant has enough sunlight to bloom this well, the leaf cutting should have enough light to grow leaf babies.  If there wasn't enough light, or if there was too much direct light, the leaf should have died by now.  It is a mystery to me.

Leaf still looks healthy enough

While certainly not perfect, I don't think the conditions are too bad where this leaf is situated.  The mother plant is growing right next to this leaf, it blooms for months on end and generally looks great.  

To add to the mystery, more recently I took two leaf cuttings of the mother plant (and one from another plant) and have them in a pot of soil beside the leaf in water.  

I planted those leaves 27 January 2025, the first leaf babies popped up on 19 March 2025, about two months later.  During those two months the leaf in water sat there and didn't appear to change. 

African violet leaf cuttings in soil work well for me

I have no idea what I am doing wrong, and to be honest it doesn't matter too much.  I know propagating African violets in water is simple for many people, I also know that I can propagate them in soil pretty easily, so the fact that I can't propagate them in water doesn't change a great deal for me because I can still propagate these lovely plants. 

If you propagate African violet leaves in water and it works for you, keep doing that.  If you propagate African violet leaves in soil and that works for you, keep doing that.  If you propagate by wrapping the stem in damp paper towel and that works for you, keep doing that.  It doesn't matter too much what doesn't work, as long as at least one method does work for you. 

I plan to keep this leaf in water until it dies or produces baby plants.  It isn't taking much room, and isn't taking too much effort, so I may as well leave it to the bitter end.  

Edit to add: My leaf died in September 2025.  For a year and a half it sat in water, and did nothing.

Propagating African violets by planting leaves or flower stems in soil works well for me, so I will continue to do it this way.  The fact that I can't propagate them in water is no great loss.  

On occasion I list African violets or African violet leaves on my for sale page.  I don't have a lot of types, and don't usually have many extra plants, but if you are interested it is worth a look.