PSA: I chased a viral sourdough starter trend and almost threw out 8 months of work

Phoenix Brown · 2026-11-12T04:05:06.032989+00:00

So about a year ago I got sucked into this whole trend of buying a dehydrated starter from some lady with 200k followers, and I had to pick between sticking with my own jar that I'd kept alive since March or starting fresh with her "famous" one. I went with the new one because everyone in the comments said it doubled in 4 hours flat. Six weeks later my loaves were dense and gummy, and I found out the timeline in her videos was sped up. My old starter was still sitting in the back of my fridge the whole time, sad and gray, and when I fed it again it came right back. I lost almost two months of baking and about $60 on flour chasing something that was mostly editing. Now the hype is gone and her page barely posts, but my ugly jar is still going strong. Did anyone else get burned by a starter they bought online, and how long did it take before you figured out it was the starter and not you?

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PSA: I chased a viral sourdough starter trend and almost threw out 8 months of work | After the Hype - Vivisector