Making your own instant

[Edward]

I will post my step by step procedure with photos and end results.

What are the thoughts on root to water ratio? I'm thinking the end product won't be much affected by how much water you start with because you're going to dry off the water anyway but you'd need enough water to be able to extract as many of the KL's in your prep as possible before you dry. I think 2 litres of water which is about 8 cups could probably take a good 4 cups of root in a blender, then strain through double nylons to get a nice smooth grog. In the video she was putting 2 cups in each tray so if I had 4 running I could do 4 cups of root every 3 to 4 hours or however long it takes per run. Awesome.

 

[Edward]

Got this bad boy on the way... conical burr coffee grinder for fine milling of quality instant kava

 

[Sam Handwich]

This is awesome, please keep is posted on your results @Edward. I just realized that I already own what I need to do this, but on a pretty small scale. I have a nesco gardenmaster dehydrator and a "fruit snack" tray that will hold 2-3 cups of liquid. I'm going to try a run with the one tray, and if it works well I'll order more trays. @Kapmcrunk, when you made yours did you siphon off the water from the top of settled grog first or just dehydrate the whole batch?

 

[The Kap'n]

This is awesome, please keep is posted on your results @Edward. I just realized that I already own what I need to do this, but on a pretty small scale. I have a nesco gardenmaster dehydrator and a "fruit snack" tray that will hold 2-3 cups of liquid. I'm going to try a run with the one tray, and if it works well I'll order more trays. @Kapmcrunk, when you made yours did you siphon off the water from the top of settled grog first or just dehydrate the whole batch?

I dehydrated the whole thing, like an ignorant person. Someone pointed out that I could have easily cut my dry time by letting it settle, and pouring off the top water layer.

 

[Sam Handwich]

I think I will do that, but instead of pouring it off I will siphon it with a straw...into my mouth. I bet there's a few KL's floating around in that water.

 

[Ligermeat]

Since deydrators are expensive, could an oven do the trick? I don't really care if the kavalactones get destroyed from the intense heat... I really only drink kava for the flavour!

Just kidding. I was hearing that heat doesent actually destroy lactones. If this is the case, anyone could whip up small batches of instant! The instant kava buisness would be history!

 

[Sam Handwich]

I don't see why not, I've made jerky and dried smoked salmon in the oven before I had a dehydrator. Just set the oven to low and crack the door open to control the heat.

 

[The Kap'n]

The most awesome aspect of the whole thing is that I only scratched the surface of what could be done at home to make your own instant powders. I'm sure the oven would work as well.

One bit of advice: On your first batch when you're prepping the medium grind, make that first batch exactly how you would make your kava you consume regularly. That way you'll know exactly how much instant equals your preferred dose.

 

[Edward]

The most awesome aspect of the whole thing is that I only scratched the surface of what could be done at home to make your own instant powders. I'm sure the oven would work as well.

One bit of advice: On your first batch when you're prepping the medium grind, make that first batch exactly how you would make your kava you consume regularly. That way you'll know exactly how much instant equals your preferred dose.

Good plan, I'll do that for the first run.

 

[Bwiggy]

I just had my first batch of home made instant!
Yesterday evening I did 5 tblspoons of Borongoru in warm water with a splash of oil, blended three different times in a high powered food processor, then worked by hand in a nut bag. Poured off the liquid into a cake pan and put on a tray in a 9 tray dehydrator at half temp. I did three manual washes.
I was gone all day, but when I got back - In less than 18 hrs, each metal tray was completely dry.
the dry stuff is like sheets, which I lightly crumpled in baggies.
Tonight I used about a third of the dry remains from the first wash and the effects were strong and fast!
Also, it much easier to get down than regular grog or even regular micronized.

 

[Edward]

@Bwiggy ok, this is awesome! Thanks for posting that. Waiting for my equipment to come and I'll get started.

 

[kasa_balavu]

Since deydrators are expensive, could an oven do the trick?

I believe Taki Mai use an oven, so it's definitely doable.
It will take much longer though if your oven doesn't have a fan. Dehydration works better if you have hot, dry air flowing over the liquid suspension.

 

[Sam Handwich]

I just had my first batch of home made instant!
Yesterday evening I did 5 tblspoons of Borongoru in warm water with a splash of oil, blended three different times in a high powered food processor, then worked by hand in a nut bag. Poured off the liquid into a cake pan and put on a tray in a 9 tray dehydrator at half temp. I did three manual washes.
I was gone all day, but when I got back - In less than 18 hrs, each metal tray was completely dry.
the dry stuff is like sheets, which I lightly crumpled in baggies.
Tonight I used about a third of the dry remains from the first wash and the effects were strong and fast!
Also, it much easier to get down than regular grog or even regular micronized.

@Bwiggy, nice work! I'm going to try this weekend. What did you use to pulverize the dried grog back into powder?

 

[The Kap'n]

@Bwiggy your end flaked result is 1:1 exactly what came out of my setup before grinding. Good work!

 

[Bwiggy]

@Bwiggy, nice work! I'm going to try this weekend. What did you use to pulverize the dried grog back into powder?

@Sam Handwich I chose to not pulverize it... I just gently broke it up inside a baggy. Then, I put it in a glass with water only, gently stirred it couple times, and drank it. Flakes and all. And I felt the numbing within 5 minutes. I will stick with the flakes going forward.

 

[Bwiggy]

P.S. For each wash, I added a splash of grapeseed oil during the process ( I always do this since I read that kava is not water soluble).
The dried sheets removed quickly and easily from the pans. The oil is not dehydrate-able, so it stayed with the kavalactones, in theory anyway, and maybe that helps the metabolizing of the kavalactones.

 

[Sam Handwich]

Interesting, I wonder if the addition of the oil would interfere with the ability to pulverize it into a fine powder? I know you are not going that route, just curious.

 

[Bwiggy]

I can see how oil could gunk up a pulverizer.

In my experience, water with kava flakes is 10x better than pulverized + crafting something to drink it with.

 

[Edward]

I think making up the original batch with a blender should emulsify the KL's enough, not sure though. It's always been strong enough for me anyway. I'll try lots of different methods and let y'all know the best.

 

[Chaucer]

P.S. For each wash, I added a splash of grapeseed oil during the process ( I always do this since I read that kava is not water soluble).

Bwiggy, or anyone, could you elaborate on what this statement means in terms of kavalctone extraction? I had heard something similar (though not using the term 'soluble') and always thought that it merely meant that kava does not form a solution with water and so will settle. Since you are evaporating the water, this wouldn't seem to be an issue. Are you saying that water does not sufficiently break down kava for KL extraction?