Aluball vs Traditional Preparation
- Thread starter GussWest
- Start date
Sometimes the Aluball smacks me in the face and sometimes it doesn't. . Kava is inconsistent in general but traditional method is harder hitting???? The thing is it is hard to say. If I fill the shaker up 600mL and put 2 balls through it is not going to be near the potent mix of my traditional based on amount of root to water. If I took the time to put 4 balls through I'd probably get a hard hit. With traditional I often have thick sludge where as Aluball it's a pleasant drink, and as I said that is based on the amount of root not the aluball technique itself. I believe they are working on a big aluball.
If you don't own an Aluball you should definitely buy one. It should be in all Kava consumers inventories. For how quickly you can prepare a good batch from it, it is truly a game changer. I take a good 40 minutes to prepare a traditional bowl to drink with my methods, and if I don't got that time a couple minutes of shaking brings the good vibes still.
If you don't own an Aluball you should definitely buy one. It should be in all Kava consumers inventories. For how quickly you can prepare a good batch from it, it is truly a game changer. I take a good 40 minutes to prepare a traditional bowl to drink with my methods, and if I don't got that time a couple minutes of shaking brings the good vibes still.
40 minutes!? What kind of voodoo rituals do you perform during your grog prep?
Traditional prep takes me a maximum of 5 minutes; what's your process?
I knew somebody was going to call me out on thisEQ's Method:
Firstly I set-up the lab:
Pour some water in my electric kettle and set it to boil.
Get out steel bowl, root, scale, measuring cup.
Scale the root, and dump in strainer.
I added the subtlety from your method as well with shaking the bag and getting the small dusty particles out.
Ratio out the water. 40% boiling 60% hot as the tap gets
Pour through open strainer bag so the water makes direct contact with root. Tie the bag.
Let it soak 10 minutes, so you don't burn your hands as well.
Knead 10-15 minutes. I've been experimenting with this time lately. Trying out 5 minutes but 15 works the best.
So with the intial set-up scaling it's about 5 minutes, plus 10 to soak, and plus 10 say for kneading. That is 25 minutes.
I then put a small amount of ice in a glass and dump it into the bowl of brew. I toss that bowl in the fridge.
I toss my drinking glass ( shell ) in the freezer.
I let it chill out 10- 15 minutes.
I set-up the chaser station. Iced juice, sweet tarts, Kool-aid, Water.
So it takes about 40 minutes.
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I guess it does take me 10 minutes after thinking about it -- but most of that is just letting the heat work on the root. I do cool it down with ice, but my first shell is generally lukewarm because I don't want to wait.
EQ's Method:
Firstly I set-up the lab:
Pour some water in my electric kettle and set it to boil.
Get out steel bowl, root, scale, measuring cup.
Scale the root, and dump in strainer.
I added the subtlety from your method as well with shaking the bag and getting the small dusty particles out.
Ratio out the water. 40% boiling 60% hot as the tap gets
Pour through open strainer bag so the water makes direct contact with root. Tie the bag.
Let it soak 10 minutes, so you don't burn your hands as well.
Knead 10-15 minutes. I've been experimenting with this time lately. Trying out 5 minutes but 15 works the best.
So with the intial set-up scaling it's about 5 minutes, plus 10 to soak, and plus 10 say for kneading. That is 25 minutes.
I then put a small amount of ice in a glass and dump it into the bowl of brew. I toss that bowl in the fridge.
I toss my drinking glass ( shell ) in the freezer.
I let it chill out 10- 15 minutes.
I set-up the chaser station. Iced juice, sweet tarts, Kool-aid, Water.
So it takes about 40 minutes.
I like how you specifically say "I set-up the chaser station..." I find it funny, because I used to do the same exact thing. These days, after having had so much grog, I don't even bother. I just know that it's going to taste bad and that's that
I get the most from my root by doing what takes me about 5-10 minutes to do (the extra 5 minutes is to decide which kava I want)
Blender, 2 cups of ice cold water & stainless 100 micron or less strainer. I always use three heaping tbs of root which is, I suppose closer to 5, idk.
Blender at lowest possible setting, for about 1 minute.
Glass pint mug, put strainer over glass (my holds 4 fl oz), pour through (all at once, slowly)
Tap side of strainer in the end to get all the liquid out. (and builds Guiness like froth)
Drink and repeat. (I get 2 good washes like this)
EDIT: This is what Squanch was referring to, lol
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How about the magic version? It's been done on the replacable title. I have to entertain this for a bit
LOL Thread hijack
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this should be an Alchemist icon, what I wanted to use, think of it as one.I showed my friend a picture of it and his expression was like 10 naked women busted down the door.
I don't like using the traditional method as much as the aluball. Maybe I just never had a strainer with a mesh as fine as what the aluball has, but I prefer my kava to have as little root fibers as possible. Sure it isn't as strong, even using the same amount, because there's not as much of the actual plant material in your brew. I'm willing to make this trade off and just drink more kava instead though. It's much easier on my stomach. My colon does not like kava root fibers at all.
Pat-Attack
Kava Curious
Well when I fill up an AluBall, I fill one heaping half of one, then shake. for me one is usually enough unless I want to get real krunk YMMV. I think the difference for me is that I usually can drink 4 or 5 (and they still be somewhat potent) washes to make sure I tap out the kava. I typically make my first wash or two into little shots (small amount of water) drink those, and then add a good bit more water for the next few and combine them, because it's the water flushing through the balls that agitates the kavalactones into the liquid... so more water = more flushing
My latest aluball prep method for a light session is to fill 3 balls with a good heaped tablespoon in each, put them all in the shaker, fill halfway with milk and top up with water. Give that a good shake then pour it out through my cactus kava strainer for extra straining. I do find the aluballs let a little too much through for me and with some kavas that can really spoil my day/night. Once I've done the first shake I then fill it half full with water again and then shake and drain, through the strainer again and mix the two washes together. I find it plenty strong enough for a daytime session or for a quick session in the evening if I haven't got much time.
It sounds like you need one of my strainers
You definitely won't be drinking any root fibers like you'll get with most strainers, and you can knead the hell out of it without worrying about it tearing.