Kitchen Research Shows : Water ruins kava !

[Plantacious]

Think about this.
Water can be stored in a container at room temperature and unrefrigerated.
Kava powder can be stored in a container at room temperature and unrefrigerated.
But mix those 2 things together, with no other ingredients at all, and now suddenly that combination means it must now be refrigerated to prevent spoilage.

This has totally wrecked a culinary philosophy I have been living by, for years, that I came up with by just using simple logic.
If Substance A does not require refrigeration and Substance B does not require refrigeration, and I mix those 2 together, I
have always concluded it's safe that the combination does not require refrigeration.

So now that I discover that's not the case with kava root powder combined with water, then I wonder how many other things my rule does not apply to ?

 

[Plantacious]

I assume you are joking, right?

Mostly, but you did clear some things up for me. Thanks.
One more question. If you create an environment for bacteria to grow, what determines whether its good bacteria (probiotics) or bad bacteria ?

 

[kavakarma]

Kava is starchy and on forest hikes I have made shells out of tin-foil or plastic, reusing it each place I choose to stop and have tea. Often I have to start a fire to keep bugs at bay, and big black ants will crawl into the container I make my tea in within seconds of leaving it out. The tea or the dried tin. You are thinking in a positive direction, maybe someday a microbrewery will find a relevant idea.

 

[TheKavaSociety]

Mostly, but you did clear some things up for me. Thanks.
One more question. If you create an environment for bacteria to grow, what determines whether its good bacteria (probiotics) or bad bacteria ?

The short answer is: their presence. Either in your food or in the air. Your kava powder naturally has spoilage bacteria present, so adding water and keeping the temp above 4C makes them multiple and spoil your kava.

 

[fait]

So now that I discover that's not the case with kava root powder combined with water, then I wonder how many other things my rule does not apply to ?

Mostly, but you did clear some things up for me. Thanks.
One more question. If you create an environment for bacteria to grow, what determines whether its good bacteria (probiotics) or bad bacteria ?

When producing beer to ferment, the brewmaster has to use certain types of yeast to make a desired product. Most importantly, he has to make sure the environment he's brewing in doesn't get outside wild yeast from spoiling the batch.

Likewise, I imagine the bacteria that's all around us (the Weird Al song "Germs" comes to mind) will be a mixed bag whether or not they'd get into your pitcher of grog. These could be bacteria that benefit your gut flora, they could be pathogens, or they could be another category completely. But even if the germs themselves don't hurt you, they may excrete waste product that could adversely affect you. It may take a large colony of these microbes to do so, but you create that large colony if you let your grog sit too long in the fridge or out in room temperature.

 

[Mo'iety]

I wonder if there's a practical and effective way to prolong the shelf life of prepared grog without impacting effects, flavor, or safety. Either for longer term storage of homemade kava or for commercial bottled kava, if anyone ever introduces that. Pasteurization is probably out, since the temperatures involved might be high enough to destroy kavalactones. Maybe a bacteriostatic food preservative like sodium benzoate would help.

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[Russell Caruso]

I wonder if there's a practical and effective way to prolong the shelf life of prepared grog without impacting effects, flavor, or safety. Either for longer term storage of homemade kava or for commercial bottled kava, if anyone ever introduces that. Pasteurization is probably out, since the temperatures involved might be high enough to destroy kavalactones. Maybe a bacteriostatic food preservative like sodium benzoate would help.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

I have no idea what company it was, but someone did sell bottled Kava a while back. It was only sold online, but it came in a bottle that looked just like an ordinary water bottle. Kinda always wanted to try it but never had a chance to. It'd be nice to come home and grab Kava out of the fridge like it was a beer or a coke.

 

[kastom_lif]

I wonder if there's a practical and effective way to prolong the shelf life of prepared grog without impacting effects, flavor, or safety.

Spel smol ale wan samting bae i kamtru.