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Making your own instant

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
I read something about this somewhere the other day and now I can't find it so I wonder if anyone can help with this?
Has anyone made their own instant from med grind?
How well did it work (or not?) ?
How did you do it? In the oven? In a food dehydrator?
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Man, that was a really cool project. @Kapmcrunk, what ever became of it?
It worked great! The only problem was that you needed about 5 hours to run a batch. Batches usually yielded around 10-15 grams. So the return for time investment was pretty far from worth it. Figured I'd leave the instant making to the people who have the necessary equipment. I was going to go a freeze dry route, but honestly it was about to turn into a never-ending funds consumer.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
I read something about this somewhere the other day and now I can't find it so I wonder if anyone can help with this?
Has anyone made their own instant from med grind?
How well did it work (or not?) ?
How did you do it? In the oven? In a food dehydrator?
Works as well as any high quality instant you can purchase online. The gist is that you dehydrate prepared kava. So you could take a pan, pour your prepared medium grind grog into it, and dehydrate that. What you're left with is what looks like huge flakes of fish food. Use a mortar and pestle to grind that up, and you have a coarse grind instant. Put that into a ball mill and let it run for a while and you've got yourself a real instant product.

I believe @Vekta, and @krunkedout were the only two people to try my instant product.
 

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
@Kapmcrunk wow, just wow! I'm in the process of reading the last of that thread now and that looks awesome! So the vacuum extraction is expensive but better because it involves no heat? But just plain gently warming a pyrex dish (say) full of prepared kava will just eventually dry out? Nice. I might have a go with a small batch and see if it's for me.

In my brief research I've come across loads and loads of food dehydrators but I haven't found one that mentions that it will dehydrate liquids in any decent quantity.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
@Kapmcrunk wow, just wow! I'm in the process of reading the last of that thread now and that looks awesome! So the vacuum extraction is expensive but better because it involves no heat? But just plain gently warming a pyrex dish (say) full of prepared kava will just eventually dry out? Nice. I might have a go with a small batch and see if it's for me.

In my brief research I've come across loads and loads of food dehydrators but I haven't found one that mentions that it will dehydrate liquids in any decent quantity.
Thank you!
I would bet a food dehydrator would work perfectly if you preped your kava, let it settle, and then drew off the top portion of water. Use the paste thats left over to coat your pyrex dish. Pop that sucker in the dehydrator for a few hours and you should end up with flakes like I had.

Edit: And yep, the vacuum freeze drying would be best, but would also cost tons of funds.
 

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
I'd really like to try this as I use a lot of instant in the lorry so more variety would be great. Also I find it much easier to get the right dose with instant. It's sort of already pre prepped so it's much less hit and miss about how many KL's are in there.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
@Kapmcrunk Have a look at this idea... It looks like it would work great.
Excellent find! That would work...ohh...you know....probably perfectly.

Also, I'm the same as you. The whole driving force behind making my own instant was the convenience of it.

Edit: @Edward, having looked into those food dehydrators....I can honestly say I think the method the lady in the video uses combined with the dehydrator with a low temp thermostat (Yep, they have em') would probably do everything I did, but easier and cleaner. I might actually have to invest.
 

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
Looks around £250 ($375) for me for a 9 tray version. I would really be into drying my own fruit for snacks, etc too. I'm going to get one :)
 

Bwiggy

I like plants
Ohh, @Kapmcrunk - thanks for your comments... "would probably do everything I did, but easier and cleaner. I might actually have to invest."
I have an Excaliber dehydrator!
I think I'l give it a shot (and not read through your original experiment)!
Thanks @Edward for bringing it up!

Edit @Edward - try eBay - I got a refurbished one for less than that.
 

Edward

Aluballin' in the UK
Kava Vendor
OK, 9 tray Excalibur with temp control and timer ordered from Amazon :) I've got 9 of the plastic sheets coming too. I'm thinking you'll probably be able to do about 4 at a time by skipping the tray above to give it a bit more room. I'll update when I receive it and get a chance to try it out.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Oh and 4 at a time will fully step over my "is it worth it" threshold. I'm pretty excited to see how this turns out.
 
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