Yellow kava resin that sticks to blender...

[kl.new2kava]

Basically I have noticed that using a blender for kava results in the blender getting coated in this weird yellow very sticky and almost impossible to remove resin stuff. This has resulted in me having a seperate blender as well bowls and cups dedicated to kava than my girlfriends kitchen items.  The funny thing is that it is only certain kinds of kava that exude this gunk. I blended Van3 for a few weeks and noticed no yellow gunk accumulation and then made a batch of boroguro and it was covered in it and with each batch I make it gets more yellow and sticky. The other strains I have observed this reaction with are stone and tudei so I'm going to make the guess that this has something to do with DHM as high kavain strains don't really do this. I've scrapped up the yellow gunk with a knife and it definatly gives a strong tongue numbing sensation so I assume it's a concentrate of kavalactones. It almost makes me wonder if I'm losing out a substanctial amount of goodies from my kava by using the blender for the first phase of my kava preperation. Do you strictly hand squeezers get their bags coated in resin or all over their hands or is this something specific to the blender method? Any thoughts on why it really only occurs with DHM rich strains?

 

[kl.Kava]

Are you using lecithin? It could have something to do with that. I've never had any resin/gunk problems when using the "hand-squeezing" method.

 

[kl.CarolinaBC]

I know what your talking about and I think you are right about it being high DHM kavas.  My root of choice is is from Vanuatu and I actually made a post about getting it out of your strainer bag.  It is good stuff-I have scraped it off the stick blender I use sometimes and it is strong.  It will come off if the blender if you wash it immediately after blending and use the green scrubby side of a sponge and dish soap.

yeah-it grosses out my wife too.

 

[Nihilist]

This might explain the greenish layer on my old food processor. I just thought it had always been there and I hadn't noticed it. Also my strainer bag seems harder to strain with even though I clean it. Maybe it's getting filled with resins?

 

[kl.CarolinaBC]

For the strainer bag-shoot it down with resolve laundry pretreater and wash it with a load of clothes.  Does wonders and removes the smell and reopens the weave again.

 

[kl.new2kava]

Are you using lecithin? It could have something to do with that. I've never had any resin/gunk problems when using the "hand-squeezing" method.

I use lecthin as of recently but have been having this problem since way before I began. I'm glad to hear that hand squeezing doesn't cause it as I always feel like I'm losing alot of goodies to the smear of yellow sludge on the inside of the blender. I typically blend for around 5 minutes and then squeeze and knead for 10-20 minutes in an attempt to get out as much as I can.

 

[kl.new2kava]

I know what your talking about and I think you are right about it being high DHM kavas.  My root of choice is is from Vanuatu and I actually made a post about getting it out of your strainer bag.  It is good stuff-I have scraped it off the stick blender I use sometimes and it is strong.  It will come off if the blender if you wash it immediately after blending and use the green scrubby side of a sponge and dish soap.

yeah-it grosses out my wife too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one it happens to. I actually had to buy a my girlfriend a new blender and I got a magic bullet to further shred my root and for use as a blender as well. It is easier to clean and I usually use a stainless steel scrubby but am always sad to wash so much kava goodness down the drain. I actaully scrapped up a ton of it this morning and it just stuck to my teeth and lips, but gave an intense mouth numbing effect. I tried using vinegar or lemon juice to clean it off as if lemon juice worked I would have been able to make kava-lemonade but it had no effect on removing the gunk, either did awesome spray cleaner.

 

[Bula Kava House]

It's just a kavalactone resin. Strong kava will produce it. With hand squeezing it will build up on the strainer if you reuse it for a long time. I was given a CO2 kava extract that is 65% kavalactones as a sample while I was in Vanuatu (A dab on the end of a toothpick makes your whole face go numb). That stuff is bright yellow.

 

[kavalover]

Kava resin is always my indicator to buy a new strainer. It takes a good month for a thick layer to build up on my strainers, and can be pretty difficult to wash out.