Recipes & guides · 4 min read
Kefir vs yogurt: what's the difference?
Kefir and yogurt both start with milk and a culture, but they set at different temperatures, take different times and taste very different.
Both start the same way — warm milk, a sachet of culture, time — and both end up tangy and fresh. But they are different foods, and the difference starts with the bacteria.
At a glance
| Yogurt | Kefir | |
|---|---|---|
| Culture | L. bulgaricus + S. thermophilus | Lactococcus lactis and kefir-grain cultures |
| Milk temperature | 43–45 °C | 35–40 °C |
| Setting | 7–8 hours, kept warm | 12–14 hours, kept at 35–40 °C |
| Texture | thick, spoonable | light, pourable |
| Taste | clean, sharp tang | milder, slightly fizzy |
| Equipment | blanket or yogurt maker | a jar and a towel |
Yogurt
Yogurt cultures like heat. Kept at about 43 °C they work fast and set the milk firm in a night. The result is something you eat with a spoon — plain, with fruit, or strained into a thick spread.
Kefir
Kefir cultures work at a lower temperature — 35–40 °C — so they take longer, 12–14 hours, and set the milk more loosely. It stays drinkable, with a gentle sourness and sometimes a light sparkle from the yeast in the culture.
Which one to choose?
If you want breakfast in a bowl, start with yogurt. If you want something to drink, go for kefir. If you cannot decide, the yogurt & kefir set has a box of each.
