Cuisinart cold-brew coffee maker

[Blue Roads]

Much thanks to @Kavafied for mentioning the Cuisinart DCB-10 cold-brew coffee maker for making Kava. Here's the link to it on Amazon if you want to check it out: Cuisinart DCB-10 on Amazon
Off the bat I'm experiencing some challenges, though. I put in 3/4 cup of kava for 3 cups of water, wanting a decent strength. I think that comes out to about 4 to 1. The first attempt, the water only soaked the outside of the kava and wasn't able to spin anything out into the water. I poured water directly into the filter to see if that would saturate the kava enough to get it to start mixing into the water. Another slight disadvantage is that it takes 25 to 45 minutes to complete. I will keep you posted. Any tips will be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Intrepidus_dux]

This seems like it would be a lot of fun to experiment with. Can you pour warm water in it even though it's cold brew?

 

[Blue Roads]

This seems like it would be a lot of fun to experiment with. Can you pour warm water in it even though it's cold brew?

It says not to, but I think as long as it's not really hot it should be ok. I think it only says not to so that it gets a cold brew flavor from coffee. Apparently the hot water releases stuff from the coffee that makes it more bitter and the cold brew avoids that. I'll give it a shot sometime.

 

[Blue Roads]

So far I've had to fill it from 3 cups all the way to the 7 cup max, with 3/4 cup of kava. That's about a 9 to 1 ratio but it looks like it just can't get enough water into the spinning filter otherwise. I'm thinking the only good way to do a strong mix is traditional prep, or hot water and kava in a blender, and then strained through a mesh bag.

 

[Groggy]

I don't have any tips but it's an interesting concept, I would be interested to keep track of your progress and impressions of this way of prepping kava (effectiveness, etc), as you continue to experiment.

 

[Blue Roads]

I don't have any tips but it's an interesting concept, I would be interested to keep track of your progress and impressions of this way of prepping kava (effectiveness, etc), as you continue to experiment.

I'll keep you posted. @Kavafied has posted that he still wrings out the kava in a bag afterwards to make sure it's thorough. I think I just started with too much kava and too little water, and the kava just couldn't soak it up fast enough through the fine mesh.

 

[Groggy]

I'll keep you posted. @Kavafied has posted that he still wrings out the kava in a bag afterwards to make sure it's thorough. I think I just started with too much kava and too little water, and the kava just couldn't soak it up fast enough through the fine mesh.

Would you say it was worth the $66 investment? Does it make a decent and strong shell?

 

[Blue Roads]

Would you say it was worth the $66 investment? Does it make a decent and strong shell?

The way I did it, it didn't work that well. It was still really thin after about 3 hours of messing with it. The inside of the spinning filter had a bunch of kava sludge that was kind of difficult to get out. I kept pouring the kava water through it to loosen it up and then pouring it into a strainer bag, and once I got the filter all cleaned out I kneaded the kava in the bag for a few minutes, wrung it out, and it turned into the nice muddy color I was looking for. I've only done traditional prep a couple of times so can't really compare, but for the time this took, I'd rather just do traditional and be done with it in 10 minutes.

That said, I'd like to see how it does with a weaker mixture, maybe a 10 to 1 or 12 to 1. I'm trying to find the easiest way to make a strong batch, at a 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 ratio and I don't think this coffee maker can do that. With my aluball I end up with the 10 or 12 to 1 ratio, so if I can start there with the coffee maker and add a little more kava each time, I may find a good balance. What I'm thinking is that because of the time it spends spinning the filter in the water, it can get a stronger mixture than an aluball could, if the aluball is shaken for 2 minutes.

The cleanup is also a bit involved, there's the main filter, the water tank, the coffee pot, and a filter in the lid of the coffee pot. The water tank has a valve in it that needs to be flushed out as well, but that only takes a few seconds.

I'm thinking my next investment may be a Ninja blender or a paint shaker to shake my aluball for me. LOL.

To answer your question, I'm glad I spent the $66, I think I can make it work, and if all else fails, I do like cold brew coffee. I don't think it'll make a strong shell on its own, though, without extra work afterwards.

 

[Pauluk]

A few weeks ago I was looking at a vibrating plate. Dentists and artists seem to use them for something.

If you put you alubottle on that with 2 aluball in it found a way to secure it. Maybe the agitation would work well.

 

[Edward]

That's an interesting experiment but seems harder work than just shaking up a shell in the aluball or even blending and straining. I remember when I tried a cafetiere (French press). That was interesting in a messy sort of way.

 

[avahZ]

For straight up cold brew coffee ppl spend way too much. Here is all I have and have been doing this for years. Not sure if it would work for fat soluble kavalactons.

Step one big mason jar. Step two add 1 to 2 cups coffee and fill with water. Step three shake. Step four let set over night. Step five strain. Store in fridge for up to a week. Remember cold brew is tastier and nuttier flavored than burnt coffee, but is more concentrated. I use 1/4 cup concentrate to 3/4 cup hot water.

I strain it into a small tea jug (see filter in pic). Do not use paper filters as they clog. I have also never had any luck with cheese cloth.

This method will cause some grains to settle at the bottom, so your last cup may be crunchy

I will take about two tablespoons full of low grade “micronized” kava and put it into my tea jug. I use Kava Kings Chocolate blend for this purpose. Don’t use the high quality stuff for this. Do not add Kava during the overnight brewing time, you lose any effect, only add just before you refrigerate. Kava adds just enough kick for my day without making my coffee gag worthy. I leave my gag reflex for my Friday Kava sessions

And as a bonus you can make a full pot of Hot/burnt coffee with the leftover grains that doesn’t taste too bad...

 

[Blue Roads]

A few weeks ago I was looking at a vibrating plate. Dentists and artists seem to use them for something.

If you put you alubottle on that with 2 aluball in it found a way to secure it. Maybe the agitation would work well.

That might work! The high frequency vibration may get some good extraction.

 

[Blue Roads]

That's an interesting experiment but seems harder work than just shaking up a shell in the aluball or even blending and straining. I remember when I tried a cafetiere (French press). That was interesting in a messy sort of way.

So far it does, yes. I'm going to find what works best with this particular setup.

 

[Blue Roads]

For straight up cold brew coffee ppl spend way too much. Here is all I have and have been doing this for years. Not sure if it would work for fat soluble kavalactons.

Step one big mason jar. Step two add 1 to 2 cups coffee and fill with water. Step three shake. Step four let set over night. Step five strain. Store in fridge for up to a week. Remember cold brew is tastier and nuttier flavored than burnt coffee, but is more concentrated. I use 1/4 cup concentrate to 3/4 cup hot water.

I strain it into a small tea jug (see filter in pic). Do not use paper filters as they clog. I have also never had any luck with cheese cloth.

Looks good!

 

[Blue Roads]

Last night I tried 1/4 cup of kava to 3 cups water, and it came out pretty decent. I still strained and kneaded through a bag using KWK Melomelo. A small shell of that did well. What hit super hard was the Vinaka Lawena that I had done 3/4 of a cup of kava with. I drank that down and was feeling very euphoric and almost a little disoriented for most of the evening.

Right now I'm trying 1/2 cup of KWK Melomelo to 5 cups water. Another trick I tried was to put the water in the coffee maker first, then put the kava into the filter, to get it all soaked nicely. I had to stir it a little with a spoon. That's the next challenge, to find a good plastic spoon that won't mess up the mesh in the filter, to stir it, and also to get the kava out of it as easily as possible. I wonder if I could just put the filter into the bag and submerge the whole thing, and slosh the filter around to get the kava out of it and into the bag. That would cut the prep time down tremendously, as the kava has already been wrung out pretty well by the spinning filter, and just a couple of minutes of straining through the bag seems to get the rest of it out.

It's still a bit of work to clean the coffee maker though. It's almost like cleaning a juicer.

 

[Blue Roads]

Today's attempt:

1/2 cup of KWK Melomelo
5 cups water
Water in the tank and filter first, then kava into the water-filled filter.
45 minutes of brewing

The brew-only batch came out decently, but I was also able to use the grinds from the filter to make a whole other batch that tasted a little more potent to me. Still had some difficulty getting the grinds out of the filter afterwards too. Pics are below. Pink Aluball bottle and metal bowl are the after-prep. Green bottle and coffee pot are the brewer-only.

 

[Blue Roads]

 

[Groggy]

That looks very nice, although there is something about kneading the same amount of root through a 75 micron strainer, you can knead anywhere between a couple minutes till 10+ for a really strong brew. For me it depends on my intentions and mood at the time. Tonight, I've reached kruntitude, bout 2 washes ago..

 

[Blue Roads]

That looks very nice, although there is something about kneading the same amount of root through a 75 micron strainer, you can knead anywhere between a couple minutes till 10+ for a really strong brew. For me it depends on my intentions and mood at the time. Tonight, I've reached kruntitude, bout 2 washes ago..

I've reached krunkitude as well. I don't think have ever drank this much kava at once before.

 

[Krunkaroo]

I got the same machine, will try it with kava.