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My boil up

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The amount of years I have been drinking kava & always thought it destroyed the Kavalactones.

I brought home some powder from Vanuatu which was quite low in grunt. I miss my afternoon shells so bad that I decided it was time to follow some advice on this forum.

You on the money Chris ! No way could I get anything decent from it so I've managed to save it from its fate so many kavas I've bought...in the bin. Whilst it hasn't turned into 4 fresh shells at a nakamal...it's without any possible doubt improved it. As weird as this sounds, I reckon it's also marginally improved the taste ( sort of like taken it from dead armadillo to dead buffalo )

So if you have some low powered kava & wish to spend 15 mins prep ...this actually works.

Boiled 3 cups water & added 1 cup of kava. Straight away I pulled the flame back to allow just maybe 1-2 lava bubbles every 5-10 seconds & stirred it continuously not to let it burn on the bottom of the pot.

Cooked for a solid 5 mins.

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Then added another cup of cold water & hit it with the stick blender for 2 mins.

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Then stretched a knee high stocking over a tub & strained it.

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This gave me about 1lt of which I'm half way though right now & am bloody completely over trying to make a post on a phone ..with photos when im 2 sheets to the wind.
 
TidyMinion

TidyMinion

Kava Padawan
Nice, I may just follow this recipe this evening if there is kava in my mailbox tonight. Thanks for getting up off the floor and putting those pics up!
 
B

bftiedt

I have been boiling and adding soy but the soy I believe has been upsetting my stomach so I may have to cut it out.
 
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bftiedt said:
I have been boiling and adding soy but the soy I believe has been upsetting my stomach so I may have to cut it out.
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I catalog any soy product beside a 7 foot taipan ....I know where I can find one in 30 mins but prefer not to.

I really don't like it.
 
Skywalker

Skywalker

Kava Enthusiast
Could this be a way to use less kava for the same effect? Thinking about trying this with some boroguru
 
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Skywalker said:
Could this be a way to use less kava for the same effect? Thinking about trying this with some boroguru
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No idea mate, it's maybe up to what you think of its taste or if you wish to stay married (boiling it sets up a decent honk in the kitchen). If I'm able to walk then it's too weak. I love a strong kava.
 
Gourmet Hawaiian Kava

Gourmet Hawaiian Kava

Kava Expert
Kava Vendor
Hay Nemo, I am glad you found one of the uses for the boiling method, it does make it a stronger brew and I am like you, I like strong kava too.
But with that said, I do use instant, micronized and a medium grind kava, I only use the boiling method on a kava that has to be strained, I will not boil the instant or the micronized. Have fun. :wacky::confused::D
Aloha.

Chris
 
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TidyMinion said:
Boiling makes an oily mess that's hard to strain. But the payoff...I'm beginning to believe :D
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Yeah I strain in a stocking & it does tend to 'seal' the holes. It will work through ok though.

The novelty of the taste has worn off me now though ...to get any value from this particular kava I have you need it to be like syrup & that can get a tad ordinary to drink believe me.

I'm going to grind it more today in a mortar & pestle to see if it will work cold.
 
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Buggar...just tried it,grinding it super fine didn't work either. Back to the stove it is.

Well when I say didn't work, it does a tiny bit but nothing like the heating.
 
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Hmmmm...then again.

It's a bit of a sleeper kava. Usually I only drink waka & if it does not work in 2-3 mins, I know it's low grunt. This one sits & creeps a bit.
 
HeadHodge

HeadHodge

Bula To Eternity
Henry G. said:
Nemo, you cooked it for 5 minutes? I thought a few seconds of boiling was enough.

Chris, how long do you recommend cooking it for?
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I've posted this once before somewhere, but here it is again for a 5 min boil method I found and tried. I ended up throwing my batch down the disposal because I thought I had screwed the process up somehow. So I can't recommend this or even not recommend it until I get a chance to try again.

http://www.witchforge.com/kava-kava-tea.html

Partial excerpt here (note these are not my instructions):

I recommend starting out drinking a couple of cups of this decoction to start out and seeing how you feel. I often make my kava kava tea a bit stronger than this recipe but just follow the recipe to start out. Kava Kava comes in both cut and sifted, and powdered forms. For the decoction, I use the cut and sifted kind.

You will need:
1 tsp Kava Kava Root / cup o' tea
Any additional tea for flavor
Water
Tea Bag

Add a little more water to your pot than you will be drinking to account for the water you will lose in the cooking process. Bring your water to a boil, then reduce it down to a simmer. When you have your water simmering steadily, add your kava kava root. Stir in your kava kava and continue to watch it.

Depending on your elevation, you'll want to simmer this for 5-10 minutes. Here, at sea level, 7.5 minutes seems to be the right time. Did you hear that? 7.5 minutes. I've seen source after source, website after website, that all recommend boiling herbs hard for hours or days at a time. DON'T. Watch your decoction carefully, stirring regularly. When it's ready, you will notice that the mixture will become suddenly cloudy or you may notice an "oil slick" type appearance on top. These are the volatile compounds in the root coming out. If you continue to cook the kava kava, you will boil these away, defeating the point.

When your decoction is ready, remove it from the heat. If you're brave, you may let it cool and drink it down, or if you'd like to mask the flavor a bit, now is the time to add your tea of choice directly to the hot decoction. Once this has steeped for 5-10 minutes, you're ready to go! You may notice that kava kava will make your tongue and mouth a bit numb for a few minutes, this is normal and should be considered an indication that you've done your job right.
 
kavadude

kavadude

❦ॐ tanuki tamer
Henry G. said:
Nemo, you cooked it for 5 minutes? I thought a few seconds of boiling was enough.

Chris, how long do you recommend cooking it for?
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When I boiled mine, I didn't even boil the kava directly, I boiled the water and poured it over the grog. It still turned it into a foul tasting but potent kava smoothie in the end.
 
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kavadude said:
When I boiled mine, I didn't even boil the kava directly, I boiled the water and poured it over the grog. It still turned it into a foul tasting but potent kava smoothie in the end.
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Yeah i did the same…let the water come to a boil before i added kava & then backed it off ever so slightly.

Foul smelling & potent about sums it up too. I assume its the starch that forms which make it slimy, sort of like adding cornflour to thicken a stew. I just did a Sideshow Bob shiver thinking about it.
 
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