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Kava Preparation DIY Instant/micro kava

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
I love Sunday mornings, besides lounging around drinking kava every now and again I get an idea for a kava experiment. I've always wondered if I can make my own version of an instant by taking a clean, relatively new 75 micron strainer and sifting out the sediment sans water. I know there have been a few other threads on the subject but here is my experience with it this morning.

I used 7 tbs of Squanch Waka and surprisingly within about 5 minutes of gentling shaking the contents over a large bow, resulted on a rather effortless and good amount of kava to pass through.

IMG_20180729_085758.jpg


I mixed the contents above with 300ml of ice cold filtered water, drank half to gauge the taste which was surprisingly mild, then chugged the remainder noting that the vast majority of this grog was 75 micron sediment.

I saved the root left inside the strainer to add it to more root later on today, after i try this a few more times. Eventually I'll knead it all.
IMG_20180729_091153.jpg


Also worth noting that although a much more potent grog, I felt very little in the way of nausea. less so then drinking the same kava last night traditionally prepared.

Has any one else tried this and had good results?
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
Ah, not instant but homegrown shake micronised. The finer the sift, the better the grog, or more powerful, anyway. There are several here who enjoy that. Certain grinds are better for it than others, I believe.

Now instant is made from prepared grog, where you let the silky sediment, or silk, separate from the water just by settling. The poured off liquid makes a light refreshing beverage, btw. Anyway, you then dry the silt, and later mill it into a powder to use as instant. Or if it dries in flat chunks, I eat that sublingual lay as kava flakes, makes for a mild but pleasant kava rush that lasts about 5 minutes. Like a milder version of co2 extract that only lasts a fraction of the time, but great while drinking grog in a sesh to amplify effects.

Excellent projects for a lazy day off......
 

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
Ah, not instant but homegrown shake micronised. The finer the sift, the better the grog, or more powerful, anyway. There are several here who enjoy that. Certain grinds are better for it than others, I believe.
Very true, but since I don't have access to fresh kava, it may be the next best thing. I call it instant for the sake of simplicity.
 

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
I think this may be an excellent marriage to kapm's ice cube tray post, in FAQ's.
kavaicecubes.png

Use ice cubes from one strain to cool off another type of kava. Maybe next Sunday I'll experiment. :)
 

theGrogfather

Sipping on Waka juice. Laid back
I tried this a while ago as an attempt to speed up the kneading process by getting all the small stuff out first, but I noticed a lot of the finer particles floating away while shaking the strainer.
 

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
I tried this a while ago as an attempt to speed up the kneading process by getting all the small stuff out first, but I noticed a lot of the finer particles floating away while shaking the strainer.
what do you mean by floating away?
 

kavamehameha

Magnum's 'awa drinking bird
Maybe one could place the (tightly closed) strainer bag inside an AluBottle and shake it vigorously to obtain these finer particles?
 

theGrogfather

Sipping on Waka juice. Laid back
what do you mean by floating away?
Like a small dust cloud of Kava that doesn’t end up settling in the bowl, but blows away. I even inhaled the cloud best I could and got a distinct Kava taste in my mouth hah. Maybe I was shaking my strainer too hard.
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
Like a small dust cloud of Kava that doesn’t end up settling in the bowl, but blows away. I even inhaled the cloud best I could and got a distinct Kava taste in my mouth hah. Maybe I was shaking my strainer too hard.
Those have, I am guessing, some of the finer kavalactones, pun intended. And yes, you can lose a lot if it just floats away. And from the best part.
 

Zaphod

Kava Lover
Yes! I did the same with some squanch. It is already ground super fine so I felt like it would give the best results. In the end, I found it less bitter than my traditional prep with hot water. Maybe a bit more "heady" versus "heavy" with the waka but weaker overall. My guess is when I do a traditional prep all these particles make it into my grog anyways - along with the stuff I can squeeze out of the larger particles making it stronger. Not a bad approach if you want some convenient home made micro (and less expensive) but for normal use not so much...
 

kavamehameha

Magnum's 'awa drinking bird
Like a small dust cloud of Kava that doesn’t end up settling in the bowl, but blows away. I even inhaled the cloud best I could and got a distinct Kava taste in my mouth hah. Maybe I was shaking my strainer too hard.
That's the reason why I recommend using the AluBottle. All particles stay inside while shaking the strainer bag.
 
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