Meet Maya from MYMY Probiotics!
Can you tell us a bit about your business? How did you get started?
Smakelijk is the Dutch word for delicious, or tasty. Smakelijk Pty Ltd not only is a purveyor of fine foods and drink, its handcrafted artisan methods produce MYMY, a naturally sparkling probiotic. Aussie Native Davidson Plums, or Ooray, sourced from Sev Gen's Galeru;Forever Fruit Orchard in Cooroy, reflect exquisite quintessentially QLD country. Yet the fermentation recipe for my kefir took almost 3 years to master, essentially using my son as the barometer for drinkability of a small child. He was 3 and a half years old when he finally gave the thumbs up for taste - Racy Raspberry, the original winner.
Using 1kg:20L raspberries to MYMY® made the perfect combo of: mad fruit intensity & an exquisite tart finish. Also the enzymes give the perfect amount of fizz, but unlike carbonated drinks. Tiny bubbles like a fine champagne, only probiotic and non-alcoholic. This was a clear win for me and my body, consuming upwards of 30L/mth for the whole family. MYMY® has been made in Meanjin commercially since 2015 (Wandering Cooks in Fish Lane), then we moved in 2019 to The Food Connect Shed, our current home.
How do you make your kefir? What is your process?
MYMY® is made with single origin, certified organic Vanilla bean paste from Tonga, QLD's Sunshine sugar, locally sourced lemonades/lemons/limes, 72 ionic sea minerals & trace elements, and filtered water. This fermentation takes anywhere between 3-7 days, depending on the season, then is put into a cold ferment which locks in the tiny bubbles. This is then ready for fruit. The secondary ferment is much quicker, as the hard work of getting the right amount of culture, flavour and fuel for the ferment has been done. In Summer, overnight in this crazy hot humidity is enough! Most MYMY® ferments take 1-3 days in the 23L vat, then have equal or 1.5 times in cold ferment before bottling/kegging. We pour it in flat, and allow the fizz to form in the bottle/keg. These need at least another week before they are ready to go out for sale. The longer the bottle age, the more probiotic content and bubbles, the less sugar remains in the bottle. Knowing to burp your MYMY® bottle before drinking is super important! Otherwise, the MYMY® can sneak up on you and pop out to say hello.
What do you love about your work?
Feeling the effects when a batch is exquisite, random explosions, the bubbly fermented fruit which we donate to the piggies at Echo Valley and Rising Sun Farms, the connection to growers, farmers & country, the interconnected web of amazing artisans, changemakers & trailblazers in the food eco-system, the regenerative effects in well-being in NDIS & Aged care clients, AND most of all, being able to share this magic secret of nature I stumbled upon so many years ago.
How important is making organic/sustainable products to you?
MYMY® was never created as a profit-based product, but rather an organically perfected artisan drink that had to be good for the people but also good for the planet. From our first Farmers market at The Gap in 2015 we have offered a circular economy for our glass bottles to mitigate packaging waste. In January 2024, our tally is more than 103,000 bottles, also having relabeled more than 35,000 bottles. We were highly commended in 2023's Brisbane WasteSmart Award for business and nominated the year before that. We reuse most of our packaging, choose biodegradable packing materials, donate all our fermented fruit to farmers, upcycle our eskies from being single use, and being circular.
MYMY® uses certified organic and biodynamic ingredients that have been carefully sourced to produce its unique flavour. Our fruit is sometimes certified organic, sometimes locally sourced from country that we know will yield the best flavour, and sometimes grown especially for private batches (like the certified organic Rose petals & rose scented geranium). The quality of our fruit yields the quality of our beverages. Knowing your farmer, knowing the conditions it grew in, and knowing the fruit all result in each batch being completely unique and one of a kind.
If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Indie Bakehouse sourdough bread salad: with Echo Valley bacon, crunchy kale cured with Kallindarbin lemonade juice and garlic, spanish onions, red capsicum, lebanese cucumber and avocados in a lemony-namjin dressing, and toasted pine nuts.
Could you tell us an interesting/quirky fact about yourself?
ADHD is my superpower that was recently diagnosed, and it has been liberating being able to harness it as I age.
If you were a fruit or vegetable, which one would you be and why?
A pomelo - biggest citrus with refreshing sweetness but only a little sourness. Tough to get to, with a thick pith & rind.Is there anything you'd like to add?
MYMY® will only be available in bottles until the end of Autumn 2024.
See the full range of MYMY products on our website here.
