Making your own instant
- Thread starter Edward
- Start date
That looks exactly the same as mine except perhaps no timer. The silicon pan idea sounds great. I've got some of the fruit leather sheets coming (paraflex?) so there should be less sticking with that.
I took the instant and the mill away with me so I ran it today for a couple of hours and it did quite a good job. Hopefully I will get a chance to try it tomorrow night and I'll report back with effects. The ceramic balls did pick up quite a bit of kava and everything gets a light layer of kava so you do lose some in the prepping, drying and milling stage. I'm surprised at how little powder I got from the amount of root I used but I'll prep it differently next time and see if it makes any difference, probably not. I think what I have got must just be super potent kava powder.
@Kapmcrunk what about if I don't wash the ceramic balls and the roller tube? Is that dangerously unhygienic? I'm thinking with repeated use you'd get to the point where it couldn't pick any more kava powder up?
@Kapmcrunk what about if I don't wash the ceramic balls and the roller tube? Is that dangerously unhygienic? I'm thinking with repeated use you'd get to the point where it couldn't pick any more kava powder up?
Going to try it tonight.
As long as it's for your own personal consumption, I don't see why it would harm you if you ran 3-4 days worth of grindings before cleaning the ceramics.
Ok, just tried the Malekula Magic instant. I mixed just over a level teaspoon in 200 ml of milk. It didn't mix as well as commercial instant but I could have let it grind for longer to go finer so I think that's something I can fix. The mix was quite mild in flavour but unmistakably Malekula Magic. I haven't had kava for a few days due to being in Wales so first day back I wouldn't always expect amazing results but 5 minutes in and I'm getting a creeping glow of warmth and happiness that is Malekula Magic. I'll update 15 mins in which is when I tend to start feeling more effects.
Woah, ok... 1 heaped teaspoon is better... I'm feeling effects straight away, a little more flavour in the mix and numbing of the mouth. The thing is if it takes 1 heaped teaspoon to get effects then I haven't really got many teaspoons worth out of that bag I made up. I'm convinced that it can be done but I'm yet to be convinced it's worth it. I haven't got a free weekend for a while but when I do I'm going to make the original prep a little weaker to get max extraction, make up 4 litres of kava on a Friday night and leave them to settle somewhere cool overnight then all day Saturday just be dehydrating and grinding. If I get similar results again then it may turn out to be not worth it. We'll see.
After about an hour since the first dose I'm definitely feeling kava effects. Not really strong but I haven't had much and I'm thinking first night back and all that. Overall though I'm pleased with the effects, they have built a bit over the hour so it's definitely working.
I'm thinking that when I get the proper sheets for dehydrating it will make a difference because dehydrating in bowls, etc took quite a while to reduce the liquid. Letting it settle first and then dehydrating the rest on flat sheets with a much larger surface area of liquid and much less depth should mean the dehydrating process should be a lot quicker. Maybe that will make a difference to the strength of the powder?
I'm thinking that when I get the proper sheets for dehydrating it will make a difference because dehydrating in bowls, etc took quite a while to reduce the liquid. Letting it settle first and then dehydrating the rest on flat sheets with a much larger surface area of liquid and much less depth should mean the dehydrating process should be a lot quicker. Maybe that will make a difference to the strength of the powder?
Out of interest I had Malekula Magic medium grind tonight to see the difference. I've had 5 tablespoons of root in just under 2 cups of milk in the blender and strained. I had the second cup about 20 mins ago and I have to say I'm getting nowhere near as much effect as I got from 1.5 heaped teaspoons of the instant last night. I find that really interesting, the instant does seem to be a lot better.
Looking online I think a heaped tablespoon of root is probably about 20 grams meaning there are 12.5 tablespoons in a 250 gram bag which is what I used for the instant. So let's say I would need 8 tablespoons to get a similar effect to 2 teaspoons of the instant then a 250 gram bag would do for 1.5 sessions whereas the instant gave me probably 4 or 5 sessions worth. That's actually pretty good. Assuming the above maths is correct that is. Basically what I have done is isolate the good stuff into a very small amount of powder so when you mix it you don't need so much.
