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Awesome way to make instant kava!

Hey All,

I posted this in /r/Kava and one of the users thought it would useful to share over here. I have a Ninja Air Fryer that I use literally ever day for cooking and I honestly never realized it had a dehydrate button until yesterday :). So, I brewed 6 Tbsp of kava using the blender method and even did a second wash (4 cups of water total). I put it all in the air fryer pot, hit the dehydrate button at a temp of 135° F and let it do it's magic for about 14 hours. The result is pure numbing awesomeness! I didn't grind it up in these pictures...I just broke it up in the bag.

I hope this helps anyone who's interested. And please let me know if you have any suggestions to improve my method. It worked out perfectly, but maybe someone can help me make it even better haha.
 

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The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
This is awesome! @bottlepuppet does it affect the taste to a degree? I always found it had a different sort of "cooked" flavor after all the processing when I got to the dry flake stage.
 
This is awesome! @bottlepuppet does it affect the taste to a degree? I always found it had a different sort of "cooked" flavor after all the processing when I got to the dry flake stage.
Yeah, it's a milder flavor, a little cooked tasting, but not much. I kept the temp low enough to avoid any burning, etc. I actually enjoy the flavor more than micronized.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Yeah, it's a milder flavor, a little cooked tasting, but not much. I kept the temp low enough to avoid any burning, etc. I actually enjoy the flavor more than micronized.
So you just pour it in there, hit the button and come back and scrape.
 

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
We did this a few years ago. I used an excalibur dehydrator but I found it too time consuming for the end result after a while.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
I have an AF101 which I like for everyday use.
Excellent. Thank you for that.

Another question I have for you is have you tried reducing your water amount prior to dehydrating? I was thinking maybe by letting it sit in the fridge until the water and kava layers separate out and then pouring off the water fraction.
 
We did this a few years ago. I used an excalibur dehydrator but I found it too time consuming for the end result after a while.
Yeah, I guess it's all relative. For me, I can just press a button and let it do it's magic. And the final product is super convenient and awesome for my personal use. The time doesn't really matter to me since it's just happening in the background. But if I was a vendor, it might be different :)
 
Excellent. Thank you for that.

Another question I have for you is have you tried reducing your water amount prior to dehydrating? I was thinking maybe by letting it sit in the fridge until the water and kava layers separate out and then pouring off the water fraction.
I just started my second batch an hour ago and it has 8 TBSP kava in about 4 cups of water (2 washes total), so I'm trying a stronger ratio to see how it goes. But your idea does sound interesting. In that situation, you would definitely want to make the kava directly into the air fryer basket (which I do anyway) and then put the air fryer basket in the fridge. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to get that sludge out without mixing it back up with the water. But, do you think that the water at the top would be totally free of kavalactones? Any experts want to chime in? I like the concept...
 

Kavaguy

Kava Enthusiast
I tried this method with the Ninja Air Fryer, and it works great. Thanks for the idea. Conventional kava drink needs to be used within a few days of making it, so it is nice to be able to have something that won't spoil and is ready to go when I experience more stress than usual. Only problem I see is how long the process takes. 14 hours for one serving. Have you tried any temperatures higher than 135 degrees F? I am sticking to your recommendation for now.
 

Kavaguy

Kava Enthusiast
The odd thing is that after dehydrating to powder, once I re-add water, the taste is a lot more bearable and I don't seem to get as nauseous. Maybe it's because I grind the powder with a coffee grinder so it is a fine powder, so it is much more smooth. Or maybe something gets evaporated when it dehyrdates, who knows.

I tried 150 degrees, and it speeded things up by several hours, so I am going to keep increasing. You need to lower the temperature toward the end, though, as to not burn the powder.
 
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