Water Kefir

Making your own soda drinks at home, I've made the ginger beer before. It was okay, but I found it too sweet, not enough bite.
I've been reading about kefir crystals, you add them to milk, and overnight it's starts to ferment. The crystals feed on the lactose in the milk, you end up with a product similar to thin yoghurt.
Well I'm already making yoghurt and all the good probiotics you can find there as well. It just didn't really click for me.
(Probiotics, the opposite of antibiotics. You bring in good bacterias into your body, that will help you keep healthy from the inside out)

Then a friend mentioned water kefir, same idea, but no milk involved. Different crystals, result the same, a fermented soda drink rich in probiotics. Yes, you use sugar, but this gets mostly eaten by the crystals which then turns it into carbon, making it a fizzy drink. The flavour is sweet, and a little yeasty,  but very nice. The taste really depends on what you feed it. Sugar is one thing, I use raw cane sugar, but also just whatever sits in the fruit bowl or pantry. Pieces of ginger, slices of lemon and bananas are favourite. Dried dates or cranberries also work very well. But that leftover bit of pineapple, coconut water, and guave jelly that didn't set, all got a second life fizzing away with very nice results.

We all have a small glass with breakfast, a good start of the day, although the taste might need some getting used to, we're all big fans of it. We don't drink fruit juices, or other sweet fizzy drinks, so having this for breakfast is a real treat.

There is a lot of info to find on the internet about water kefir with recipes and health benefits. I found this website very good (link).
I bought my crystals on Ebay, they grow with time making it possible to make bigger batches, freeze some for backup or give some away to friends.