Meet My Fermented Milk Cultures: Viili and Matsoni

Meet My New-To-Me Fermented Milk Cultures: Viili and Matsoni

I have been making fermented foods and drinks for quite a while.  I started making milk kefir in 2010 and I still make it today, I made water kefir throughout the 2010s but no longer maintain this culture, and I started traditional continuous brew kombucha in 2016.   

Ferments have allowed me to experiment with making 2 ingredient gluten free sourdough with no starter using buckwheat and either milk kefir or kombucha, and I make fresh farmer's cheese/tvorog using milk kefir.   

My kids have grown up with milk kefir.  They drink it, but usually find it a little too sour.  They sometimes drink it raw, but more often than not they drink it with honey.  I got my filmjölk early in 2026, and was able to establish it and have already successfully recultured it almost 100 times so far.  To my surprise, the kids much prefer it to kefir.  They love filmjölk raw, there is no need for honey or fruit. 

I wanted to try some other ferments to see how my family likes them and see how well they fit into our routines.  I considered making true yogurt, and will probably give that a go over summer, but for now I don't want to deal with heating things and trying to maintain proper temperatures.  

That got me wondering what other fermented milk cultures my kids might enjoy.  They need to be able to be made on my kitchen bench, with no heating, using only milk, and have potential for my kids to like them.  I decided to try two more: Matsoni and Viili.

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Getting the Matsoni and Viili Cultures

In the past, I have only started with live cultures from someone who had been keeping them for years.  I started with kefir grains, I started with live kombucha SCOBY (biofilm and pellicle), I started with live active filmjölk culture.  

For Matsoni and Viili, I was hoping to get someone send me a spoonful of goo in a zip lock bag or something, but I could not find anyone who was keeping them, so I had to search online to find what could be posted to me.

In August 2026 I ordered powdered freeze dried cultures of viili and Caspian Sea Yoghurt (Matsoni) through Bacillus Bulgaricus so I could try them both at home. This was the company I felt most comfortable ordering from after comparing the options I could find, and they were one of the few places I could find that would post starter cultures to Australia (as well as many other countries). 

The starter cultures arrived in an envelope as small amounts of dried culture in little sachets, which didn't look particularly exciting. Of course, appearances can be deceiving when it comes to fermented foods, more often than not fermented foods look kind of gross, but taste great. 

The next step was to see whether I could bring them back to life.  Once they were alive, could I reculture them long term, and would I even want to?  

Viili and Matsoni - my new cultures

Reviving the Matsoni

The matsoni came with instructions, and I decided to revive it using the same method as I did with the viili.  

To revive the matsoni I used 1 cup (around 250 ml) of A2 milk for the first batch, rather than using the full litre of milk the sachet could culture.  I thought using a relatively small amount of milk would give the new culture a good chance to establish itself.

I put the milk in a jar with a lid, let the milk slowly come to room temperature, added the contents of the sachet, stirred it in and left it at room temperature to ferment.  I kept the jar covered for the same reason as with the viili - I have other active ferments in my kitchen and didn't want anything accidentally getting into the milk. 

I wondered, after a few recultures, would Matsoni act like filmjölk, or would it act differently? If you have kept a fermenting culture alive for a few years you will know what I mean by how it acts, if not you probably think I lost my marbles.

Freeze dried starter culture

What the Matsoni Starter Looked Like

When I opened the sachet the starter mostly looked like powdered milk. It was a fine white powder that was kind of yellowish. 

There wasn't much starter in the package, just a teaspoonful or thereabouts. Bacillus Bulgaricus has a range of sizes of starter to order. 

I ordered the smallest one they offered just in case it didn't work or I didn't like it. In hind sight, ordering the next size up would have been a good idea so I could split the starter and have a few attempts if something went awry. Luckily, everything worked out for me, if I were to do this again I would have either ordered several or got one larger one and saved some.

My First Matsoni Culture

The first time making it from freeze dried starter culture I thought it was not going to work. I mixed the culture with the room temperature milk around 3pm one afternoon, screwed the lid on, and left the jar on a shelf in the kitchen.

The next morning it was still thin, and looked like milk, so I left it for a day.  Day 2 it still just looked like milk. The morning of the third day I tipped the jar to see if it had thickened, and it was still thin and looked like milk. I started to worry.

I had planned on leaving it for up to 72 hours before giving up, but I didn't get home until late due to an accident on the road. Around 76 hours of fermenting I got home, tipped the jar, and it was thick!  Success!

I opened the jar, gave it a sniff...and it smelled like pickles. 

Oh no. I had used a clean recycled jar that previously held pickles, it retained the smell. The jar was clean and didn't smell like anything when I added the milk. There is a lesson here, recycled jars sometimes retain odours that don't come out until they have something slightly acidic in them.

This culture was not left to thicken for long enough. It was thick, and tasted nice, but I think it could have been thicker if left longer.

I tasted this with my kids. It tasted nice enough. It was more sour than filmjölk, and at the same time it was more bland. I am told the first culture can be like this as the microbes are still waking up and are not yet functioning properly. I know that feeling, so was happy to reculture a few times and see what it could do.

Reculturing the Matsoni

I spooned some of the thick matsoni into a clean jar, this time I chose one that did not smell like pickles.  I made sure to get some culture from the top layer, and some from lower down, just in case different bacteria live at different depths.

I added some milk to this starter culture, stirred it with a spoon, put on the lid, and left it on the bench.  After about 24 hours it was thick, and I decided to leave it a little longer to see how thick it would get.

It thickened up nicely. Again my kids and I ate some of this. This was less sour, and far tastier. I thought it was better than any store bought yogurt I have tried, but not as good as filmjölk. My kids say it has an after taste that they are not sure if they like or not.

I am told it takes a few batches to really shine, so it is too early to decide too much.

From here I have been reculturing matsoni and eating it with my kids. I am not sure if it has earned a permanent place in my kitchen alongside my other ferments, or if I will buy new starter from Bacillus Bulgaricus from time to time and only make it intermittently. 

Reviving the Viili

The viili came with detailed instructions, but I decided to do the first batch a little differently much like I did with the Matsoni.  

I had enough starter to make 1 litre, but to give my new culture the best chance of getting established, I decided to make the first batch with only 1 cup (around 250 ml) of milk.  This meant there would be a relatively high amount of starter culture compared with the amount of milk, which I hoped would help the viili bacteria establish quickly and outcompete any microorganisms that happened to get into the milk. 

I poured a cup of A2 milk into a clean jar and secured the lid tightly.  As the milk had been in my fridge and was cold, I set it aside to warm slowly to room temperature.  The instructions said adding the starter to cold milk could shock the bacteria and make it awaken too slowly, and it is best to add the starter to room temperature milk.  I keep the lid on tightly because I have other active ferments in my kitchen, namely milk kefir and kombucha, that I did not want to contaminate the milk.

After a couple of hours, the milk was about room temperature.  I tipped the contents of the sachet into the milk, stirred it in, retightened the lid, and left it somewhere safe to ferment.  

Freeze Dried Viili

What the Viili Starter Looked Like

I ordered a small sachet of viili starter from Bacillus Bulgaricus. Again, I ordered the smallest they had on offer, and probably should have got several or a larger one and saved some in case things went wrong. 

The packaging looked very professional.  Far nicer than a spoonful of fermented milk in a zip lock bag that I had hoped for.  

The freeze dried culture looked like powdered milk, white, kind of yellowish, nothing overly interesting. I tastes some, it tasted like powdered milk, no real surprise there.

My First Viili Culture

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the first batch. I have never made a ferment using a dried starter before. Unlike milk kefir, there were no grains to see, so I had to judge it by the way the milk changed.

The first culture took a while to do its thing but was faster than the Matsoni. After 24 hours when I tipped the jar it looked like milk. After another 12 hours, about 36 hours in total, when I tipped the jar it was thick. 

I opened the jar and smelled the first batch, no pickle aroma this time, but it did smell like strawberry jam. Why had I not learned my lesson from the Matsoni... This is why it is best to use dedicated wide mouth fermentaion jars. Even though the clean recycled jars had no smell when I added the milk, they had retained odours that only came out after something acidic had been fermenting in them.

The taste was very nice, it was also relatively sour. Not as sour as yogurt or kefir, but more sour than filmjölk. 

It was thick, but it wasn't stretchy or ropey after the first ferment, but it was clearly doing something. It tasted a bit sour, and a lot like regular yoghurt. I have been told the first few batches are not entirely normal, and not to judge it until it has been recultured a few times.

Reculturing the Viili

The first batch worked well enough, so I used some of it to start the next batch much the same as I do with filmjölk.  Most people recommend a tablespoon of starter per litre of milk, but as my culture was still new and (presumably) weak I added about one quarter of the mixture as starter to three quarters fresh milk. 

Much like my other ferments, I am not sure if different species of microbes are more common at different depths of milk. For this reason, when reculturing I scoop a spoonfull from the very top, a spoonful from the lowest layer, and some from the middle. Perhaps this makes no difference and different microbial species are spread uniformly throughout, or perhaps reculturing from a mix of depths like this is one of the reasons I am able to reculture indefinitely, I guess I will never know. 

That one worked better than the first, it fermented faster, and made a nicer end result.  I continued doing this to see how reliably the culture would reculture. After several recultures, the viili was fermenting reliably. 

What Is Viili Like?

The taste is nice, and it is also sour. It is not too sour, and my kids are able to enjoy this without adding honey or flavouring. I have eaten  natural yoghurt before, and found it unpleasantly sour, I think Viili tasted far nicer than that.

Texture is one of the distinctive features of Viili. This was certainly very thick, but so far I am not really getting that stretchy, ropey texture I was excited about. I am trialling different lengths of fermentation time, as my kitchen is warming up with the seasons, so I will see what happens after I've had more experience.

Viili vs Matsoni

At this point I don't think I can say which one I prefer. I've only been keeping both cultures for a relatively short time, and both have changed as I've recultured them.

They both taste nice, and my kids like them more than store bought yogurt. They are both very simple to make, at least over the short term, so no clear favourite there either. 

Rather than declaring a winner now, I'm going to keep making them and see how they fit into our routine. I'm particularly interested in how reliably they reculture, how their fermentation times change, what they taste like once the cultures are well established, and whether my kids actually keep wanting to drink them.

Once I've had more experience with all four cultures, I'll be able to make a much more useful comparison between milk kefir, filmjölk, viili and matsoni. 

Did Anything Surprise Me?

I have many years of experience working with several different live ferments, but starting from a dried starter was new to me. It certainly wasn't difficult. I was surprised how long the first ferment took, and how the first few recultures really acted differently. Once they had recultured a few times, things became pretty stable.

I was also surprised at the pickle odour. My first Matsoni culture had a distinctive pickle smell, and the second Matsoni culture even though it was in a new clean jar retained some pickle smell. I wish I could say this is the first time I have made that mistak, and I wish I could say I learned my lesson, but I have a feeling it is only a matter of time before I do the same thing again.

I was expecting some incredible, squidgy, ropey texture from both, but neither really developed that for me. I've since been told the milk needs to be heated (and allowed to cool again) before adding starter to be able to achieve this texture. They texture both made was nice, and was probably nicer than stretchy and ropey, so I have no intention of heating the milk first.

Taste wise, one of my kids prefers Matsoni, while one prefers Viili. Neither kid disliked either ferment. They both complain that the one they didn't like as much has a weird aftertaste, which I could not detect at all.

Where I Got Matsoni and Viili Starter Culture

If you want to make Matsoni or Viili at home you need to get some starter culture. I was hoping to find someone who was culturing these, and get a spoonful to try. Sadly, I could not find anyone. 

Looking online, I found Bacillus Bulgaricus and bought these starter cultures through them. They sell a bunch of other interesting heirloom cultures (many of which I am keen to try), and they post to dozens of countries including Australia. 

Another company I found is NourishMe Organics. I haven't bought from NourishMe Organics myself, so I can't give you a first hand review of their service or products yet, but they are another Australian source worth knowing about. They sell fewer cultures overall, including some cultures not currently offered by Bacillus Bulgaricus. They also offer a lot of equipment useful for fermenting. I think at this stage they only post to Australia. 

What I Plan to Test Next

I'm planning to continue reculturing both cultures and see how they perform over the coming months.  I'm particularly interested in whether they remain reliable for me over the long term, whether their fermentation time changes, and which one my family eventually prefers.  I don't have enough bench space to maintain all of these ferments, so only kefir and the one(s) my kids really like are going to stay.

I've already been making milk kefir for years, and have successfully maintained filmjölk through well over 50 recultures, so eventually I'd like to compare all four cultures properly. For now, though, I'm still getting to know these two. 

I also occasionally have unusual edible plants and seeds available from my garden. If you're interested, you can see what's currently available on my plant and seed catalogue.