I see that people are always looking for a way to make kava taste good. When I go through my recipe process, I always tend towards frozen or highly flavored mixers and tend to lean to creamy / calorie rich. So I looked at the problem differently.
Will taking away the brown solids in a prepared kava beverage 1. still produce the effects we want 2. make the kava taste better?
-
Short answer, yes. I've done this a few times with different kava strains and blends. I did it with Bir Kar, Kadavu, Dokobana and Kalai. They all have nice, varying effects so it was a good start. The effects were lessened a little but wasn't far off. I believe it was a bit less because when you drink it unclarified, you're consuming the micronized kava that's suspended. That contains kavalactones and you're not drinking it when its clarified. I did 3 rewashes and each one had effects that diminished with each wash. So they were very nice sessions and lasted a bit longer than normal due to me going back and rewashing. By rewashing by the way I mean going back to the filter, adding more water and letting it strain again for more clarified kava. Also, I took a spoon full of this stuff and tried it. Because science! Also I thought it was OK because i would be consuming the powder anyway normally and the milk solids are essentially a smoothed out ricotta. The taste was high pineapple/lime and that pepper flavor. I didn't eat a lot so cant say what the effects would've been. Could that be a spread of some kind in the future? Maybe. Like a pudding mixer or something. I have to work with it more.
-
Absolute 100% yes. I have never had a more enjoyable (taste wise) kava experience while having much more potency than an instant or a micronized. Maybe there are some instants out there that are really potent but I just haven't had any. But the cost is also substantially lower maintaining that taste functionality.
CLARIFIED KAVA RECIPE:
- 32g Kava
- 150ml Milk
- 150ml Pineapple Juice
- Squeeze Lime
- 300ml water
- Coffee filter (paper)
- Metal reusable coffee filter,
- A container that the coffer filter will easily fit onto without leaking. I have a beekeepers honey filter. I sit the larger filter on top of the pitcher so it sits flat and doesn't wobble. Then I sit the metal coffee strainer with the paper filter inside on that. I'm sure there's a better way but that's what I had on hand.