Preparing whole dried roots

[24601]

I have a ziploc bag of 1 pound of dried roots from kavafied, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to prepare them.

The first two times, I found the tiniest, narrowest roots I could, chopped them up with kitchen scissors, and then ground them in a coffee/spice grinder.
I prepared it with the stocking method, my usual dosage for the weakest medium grind I've tried from vendors here. Both times I felt nothing. Maybe a tiny bit of body numbing, but not what I usually feel from kava.

For the past month or so I've only been drinking micronized. I'd put a shot of juice in a glass, mix in a tablespoon of micro, slam it down, and rinse with juice. That system works well for me. I really doubt RT is a thing any more, I've been drinking kava for more than a year now.

Toda, I went for the larger pieces - the ones that had white showing. Like how under the brown, it's whitish? Some of the largest pieces had a lot of the lighter stuff at the end, so I spent some time shaving that off with kitchen scissors. And then I ground it finely enough that it looks like micro.

Since I didn't feel anything the other two times, I'm going to try drinking this the way I usually drink micro.

How are you supposed to prepare ground roots into med grind or micro? Are you even supposed to use the brown outer layer?

 

[Kojo Douglas]

I'd like to know as well. I have green chips that have been sitting around for awhile.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

I had to obviously use alot more than expected for each go.. not because of potency just because of Makas..
I throw it in a ninja grinder... litterally grind for a minute maybe less.. when you see powder and chips... don't keep grinding. Strain that through what ever you use for your kava... like put it in it dry .. and shake it so the powder comes out... then keep doing that untill you have a nice pile of powder... then add all of it if you want or just the powder to rhe strainer and knead a normal amount as usual... when I did this I got a nice grog... very foamy and oily... it's a super heady kava so if you sensitive to it go slow.

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

I have a ziploc bag of 1 pound of dried roots from kavafied, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to prepare them.

The first two times, I found the tiniest, narrowest roots I could, chopped them up with kitchen scissors, and then ground them in a coffee/spice grinder.
I prepared it with the stocking method, my usual dosage for the weakest medium grind I've tried from vendors here. Both times I felt nothing. Maybe a tiny bit of body numbing, but not what I usually feel from kava.

For the past month or so I've only been drinking micronized. I'd put a shot of juice in a glass, mix in a tablespoon of micro, slam it down, and rinse with juice. That system works well for me. I really doubt RT is a thing any more, I've been drinking kava for more than a year now.

Toda, I went for the larger pieces - the ones that had white showing. Like how under the brown, it's whitish? Some of the largest pieces had a lot of the lighter stuff at the end, so I spent some time shaving that off with kitchen scissors. And then I ground it finely enough that it looks like micro.

Since I didn't feel anything the other two times, I'm going to try drinking this the way I usually drink micro.

How are you supposed to prepare ground roots into med grind or micro? Are you even supposed to use the brown outer layer?

I use a Hammer Mill to grind my root into a medium grind, a coffee grinder will work and maybe even a good food processor, make sure you make as much powder as you would use in your drink, for example if you use 4 tablespoons then you need to make that much powder. It can be hard to get it fine with normal kitchen appliances. Here is a picture of my hammer Mill.


You can see the big blades that will grind and cut the kava. Kava is a hard root and hard to grind properly. I have broke a few blenders and smaller food processors along with some coffee grinders.
I have noticed that if you use a blender that it will turn the clear blender cup yellow.
I have been told that a good Ninja food processor will do the job but I never tried it. Good luck with making your kava powder. Aloha.

Chris

 

[24601]

Awesome, thank you everyone. My little old coffee grinder is holding its own, but I think that's because I have a super sharp pair of kitchen scissors and I either cut each piece about the size of a grain of rice, or just use the blade to shave the root into the grinding cup and grind that.

I will try the dry sifting/shaking out dust method next time. Tonight's experiment is toss and wash I guess. I ground it so finely it looks just like micro.

So it doesn't matter what part of the root you use? Inside/outside/brown part/light part?

 

[Gourmet Hawaiian Kava]

So it doesn't matter what part of the root you use? Inside/outside/brown part/light part?

Since this is lateral root that grows underground you can use the entire root, just cut it up like you are doing and grind it into a fine powder and then make the drink as you wood if the powder were a medium grind, so that way it ensures you are straining any coarse particles if any are there.
Let us know how it works out for you.
Aloha.

Chris

 

[24601]

I don't know if it's possible to have reverse tolerance to medium grind after drinking micro for a while, but my first experience with it, I felt pretty much nothing. Second experience, same. Though it did feel pretty cool to be grinding it myself. Finally, the third time. I ground it as finely as I could, and then mixed a tablespoon into about two mouthfuls of juice. It still had a little bit of the floating fibres. Then I strained that through a stocking into a cup, and then squeezed/wrung out the stocking into the liquid in the cup for maybe 5 minutes. Drank it all in one shot. 5 servings of this (so five tablespoons) is pretty good. For the first three tablespoons I did it with straining, and the last two tablespoons I just did a toss and wash. I might start making medium grind in juice from now on - tastes much better.

But the grinding... jeez. If I could afford anything but my little old coffee grinder, I'd upgrade. My coffee grinder is still doing all right. It can take hours to grind just 5 tablespoons of powder, because I have to cut everything into tiny pieces with kitchen scissors first.

I'm glad I finally got effects, but I can see buying already ground stuff for the sake of avoiding those hours grinding the powder.

 

[Abbas]

This would be best http://m.ebay.com/itm/151694147420

 

[24601]

That's an impressive set of machinery, but I won't be grinding large batches of roots. I bought them this once to see what they were like and probably won't buy whole roots again as the prep is massive. If my coffee grinder doesn't crap out before I'm done the bag of roots, I'll consider that a win.

On another note, my coffee grinder seems to be separating the ground root? The dusty, finely ground stuff floats and sticks to the top of the grinder, making it easy to collect. In this pic, the fine ground stuff is top, the rest bottom - but it all comes from the same actual grind. I'm not grinding the fine stuff separately. I just dump the fine stuff that collects in the lid as I'm grinding.

 

[currentbun]

In the other thread you said:

To be honest, I'm not getting nearly as strong results grinding it myself. When I grind it to medium grind consistency, and traditional prep with a stocking, it leaves the stocking sticky. Stuff bought from vendors already ground gets dry as you knead it, not sticky. traditional prep feels like nothing after I drink it. I ground it really really fine today and drank it like micro and got an effect, but not nearly the effect of the other stuff on the market.
​

Now, I might be out in left field here. But it would seem to me that that stickiness is likely kavalactones broken down with your scissors/knife. (Isn't that what gives the kava that beautiful sheen in the shell?) If so, maybe a hot water rinse and shake of your grinder might re-incorporate what may have been lost kavalactones. Just a thought ...

 

[24601]

I could try that, but the effects are nice now. Maybe it just took time. If you look at the above photo, I've been using toss and wash for the fine powder that doesn't seem to have any fibres in it, and I'm saving the fibrous stuff in case I need it. 4 tbsp of the fine powder tossed and washed is good right now.

Maybe my stomach will hate me tomorrow though.

 

[Ed!]

I've used whole dried roots before. What I ended up doing was soaking them until they plumped up pretty substantially then ran them through an old masticating juicer. I would imagine that a blender would work as well. Certainly not getting to micronized, but seemed to work.