Water kefir kit
Water kefir kit, by Agua de Madre and Christopher Riggio
Nicola Hart, a London-based film writer, director and producer, came across water kefir when researching superfoods with her friend, the chef Sam(antha) Clark of Moro fame. She was soon in its thrall. ‘Inspired by the rebirth of the art of fermentation, we looked into water kefir as a way to preserve the goodness and enhance the quality of unprocessed food,’ says Hart.
Water kefir is now a favoured fermented quencher in the arsenal of the fit-and-fine fettled. Though a
‘Water kefir is appealing because it is not too sweet, it is vegan and has more probiotics than yogurt’
relative newcomer to this scene, it is said to date back 2,000 years, and originates from the pads of the prickly pear cactus in Mexico. With a lucid tone, subtle notes, natural fizz and a light inherent alcoholic content, it is often infused with additional flavours. Most producers remove its alcoholic element to make it a perfectly wholesome hydrator.
‘Water kefir is appealing,’ explains Hart, ‘because it is not too sweet, it is vegan and has more probiotics than yogurt or Kombucha.’ Hart was so taken with her discovery that she has pressed pause on her film career to launch her own version of the healthy tipple. Branded Agua de Madre, Hart’s take on the drink is delicately infused with a mix of fruits and botanicals. Since last June, it has found a place on London restaurant tables – at Moro, Morito, Westerns Laundry and Primeur – sipped as a complement to fine food and as that elusive interesting drink to drink when you are not really drinking. Hart has kept its 1.2 per cent ABV content, ‘because it is a natural side product’, she explains. ‘I also enjoy the low-alcohol, yeasty mouth feel. It makes it a satisfying, invigorating drink that leaves you feeling hangover-free.’
Hart launched Agua de Madre from her north London kitchen, which quickly became filled with glass fermenting vessels and settling bottles of the drink. A chance visit to this home production facility got us thinking – if we were to follow her lead and produce our own water kefir in the comfort of our kitchen, what might we need beyond a starter culture and
botanicals such as ginger and mint to make unique flavourings? Researching kits used in the fermentation of consumables over the centuries, ceramic became our focus. Because it is fired at such a high temperature, bone china is an inert material, and therefore ideal for fermenting vessels. This led us to the young Londonbased ceramicist Christopher Riggio, whom we tasked with designing a vessel and infusion basket (Hart’s methods allow spices and herbs to circulate freely with the live culture) to bring the production of flavoured water kefir elegantly into the home.
Riggio had recently graduated with an MA in ceramics at the Royal College of Arts in London (after studying sculpture in his native Canada) and was already making an impact with his work. Now running his own studio in Camberwell, he has worked alongside artists Martin Smith and Hitomi Hosono, and his own ceramics have received international awards. He draws inspiration from philosophy, painting, art and craft, and his designs connect the poetry of the past with new materials and applications. ‘Revisiting the past, and reconstituting older processes and materials that are considered redundant, is an important part of my practice,’ he says. ‘I find it fascinating that imaginative functional designs are left discarded and often never reinterpreted.’
Sitting down over a glass of Agua de Madre, the collaborators worked out how they might make something that could be both fully functional and sit proudly in the most style-conscious kitchen. ‘I immersed myself in the essential technicalities and principles of brewing water kefir,’ says Riggio. ‘The process fine-tuned by Nicola was in many ways a scientific approach that had to be respected. We spoke about suitable shapes, and reflected on how to improve the fermentation process for a day-to-day domestic operation.’
Their conversations led Riggio to the Greek amphora. An inner vortex would spur circulation and a narrow base would stop sediment simply dropping to the bottom. The basket insert that would hold the aromatics would be hydrodynamic (allowing the liquid to move through it), with a toggle system to lock it in place and allow for easy extraction. ‘In early discussions with Nicola, I recalled a clever design from a Victorian tobacco jar from 1830 – a seal kept tobacco fresh and employed an intuitive locking system,’ recounts Riggio. ‘I went out to find the antique and came upon a sturdy tobacco jar by 19th-century British designer Christopher Dresser, which stayed in the studio during the conception of the water kefir vessels.’
Riggio used a plaster lathe to create the initial forms, sketching in three dimensions. Once a shape was chosen, he used a technique called spilt moulding – which entails splitting a plaster mould into sections suitable for slip casting. Separate moulds were then created for the lids. Bone china was used in liquid form known as slip and poured in the moulds to create thin casts. He then created a specific hand tool to trim away clay from the inside of the vessel in a systematic way.
Hart is now upscaling her cottage operation and the Handmade project has informed her production process. She has bought inert ceramic wine fermenters that will impart no flavour to the drink, and is investing in baskets that will contain the botanicals much like the system employed by Riggio’s miniature maker. With her sights on a space in Hackney, Hart hopes to have a Madre Tap Room-cum-fermentary open this year.
‘Revisiting the past and reconstituting older processes is an important part of my practice’