I normally shake 4 Aluballs in my Alubottle for 2 minutes, then I pour the drink into a pitcher, then I add water to the top and shake again for two minutes. I do it this way because many of you do two washes in a row. But it occurred to me I could save myself the trouble of doing two washes and just shake the Alubottle for twice as long as I normally do, which would be a total of 4 minutes. Is there any advantage of doing two washes vs one wash but shaking or kneading twice as long? Could it be that the amount of water in my Alubottle reaches a saturation point after a few minutes, and consequently there are no more kavalactones being extracted after a few minutes unless you replace the water?
Why not just shake/knead twice as long instead of taking doing two washes?
- Thread starter Kavaguy
- Start date
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
That is my impression. Not sure why that should be so
Kavalactones are not very soluble in water. If you really wanted to test this property thoroughly, you could easily try both methods, boil off the water and see how much content you have with each.
But what really convinces me is just how FAST the water of a second wash becomes nearly as strong as the first if you aren't using massive amounts of water. You would expect the amount of KL's per knead to decrease in a linear way if the water could hold them all without getting saturated, but I can knead for 5 minutes, wringing well, then switch to new water and the kavalactones just start pouring out again.
Also, I think your strainer can become gunked up with both kavalactones and the starch in the roots. Providing new water makes it much easier for this linkage to enter the water since it is not yet saturated, which just generally opens up your straining device to more flow.
But what really convinces me is just how FAST the water of a second wash becomes nearly as strong as the first if you aren't using massive amounts of water. You would expect the amount of KL's per knead to decrease in a linear way if the water could hold them all without getting saturated, but I can knead for 5 minutes, wringing well, then switch to new water and the kavalactones just start pouring out again.
Also, I think your strainer can become gunked up with both kavalactones and the starch in the roots. Providing new water makes it much easier for this linkage to enter the water since it is not yet saturated, which just generally opens up your straining device to more flow.
That makes a lot of sense. It just occurred to me that since I own 2 Alubottles, I can just put two Aluballs in each and shake one in each hand for 2 minutes. It seems this essentially would be the same as two washes of 4 Aluballs, but it would save me a few minutes and be a little less work.
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)
Kava Connoisseur
I think you said it. Solubility reaches a max and not even that fully but also you keep resoaking the kava powder in the kava water and in a sense wasting time
Plantacious
Kava Enthusiast
But how does one know when they've reached the Solubility Max, and thus begin wasting time ?
Zaphod
Kava Lover
I thought the same thing - but the evidence is that it does get saturated. No matter how long I shake the first wash, I never fail to be able to get a second wash out of my alubottle. Same with kneading with a traditional strainer.
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
yes, I found that kneading for 20 minutes gave you no more goodness than just doing 10, but either way, I could still do another wash with less water and get good grog. I think there's a point with each wash (and I do 6) where you get as much as you are going to get out of that wash and that's it. Just drink that wash and then do the next.
KJ/P1X
Game Developer at P1X
I started to prepare using Cactus Kava technique (can't find the post atm): shake first then wash in another bowl first time. Then pour the water to the first "dirty" bowl and make another "clear" wash. Doing that way second wash is much less potent. Also each wash is much faster (not need to be long). That's because this small particles that get the bag cloth clogged is separated at first.