Guide to Making Effective Kava with a blender--Consistently

[kdoske]

Its taken me a pretty long time to realize that brewing kava really is a skill. Making it is not as easy as throwing grinds of Coffee in a coffee pot pressing start and waiting for it to be done. Whether you make it by hand or make it in a blender each involve meticulous methods that if not done correctly will yield inconstant results.

This 'Recipe', although more of a how to, will focus on the blender method. People from the islands reading these directions will probably cringe but if you are from the states like me and were not shown the methods of generations of skill then this meticulous method will guarantee you potent tongue numbing kava using traditional measurements of kava to water ratio's.

Tools During Preparation:

• Blender
  
• Measuring Cup or Table Spoon
• Silk Screen: polyester - no. 6 (For Straining, without a doubt the best strainer ever. It doesn't absorb the kava and its super super fine!!! Thanks YEE)
• Remote Digital Thermometer Maverick Model #ET-71CAN (Thats right you heard me. This thing is a god send for consistently good blended kava. Once you get the hang of it you will not need it but until then do yourself a favor and buy one. I have been using this method for a year and I still brew mine with it. There is nothing worse then brewing a batch of kava only to find out that it came out bad.)

Preparing The Kava:

Last but not least the actual preparing of the kava!

Ingredients:

• Use 1-3 Tablespoons of kava for every cup of liquid (I use two tablespoons typically)
  
• 3:1 ratio of water/milk -- 3 cups water to every 1 cup Whole Milk (Use warm enough water to heat the water/milk mixture to around 85F. If you are using a super blender, like below, then it doesn't matter it just might take longer)
  
Procedure:

1. Put Milk and Water in Blender making sure the combined liquid is around 85F
2. Add Kava to Blender
3. Pulse to mix kava and liquid together
4. Place Thermometer probe in blender and lay the lid on top (make sure probe doesn't touch the blades of the blender before pushing start. (i will typically wrap the cord around the handle to prevent it from falling in)
5. Blend on High until liquid reaches 118F (yeah thats right 118F. I promise its the sweet spot. Any higher and it thickens the kava and starts to not be as potent)
6. Strain
7. Ring out pulp vigorously. (after completely strained take the kava pulp and spread it evenly two the mesh strainer. Twist and hold as much as you can until your hands hurt making sure you have released ever last drop of kava)
7. Drink

Key Points to Remember:

• Eat Breakfast, Eat Lunch, but no dinner. I typically will start drinking around 5-6 hours after my last lunch. I will eat dinner after drinking most of if not all my kava.
• You only need 1-3 cups of liquid per person (1 cup is enough to relieve the tension after work or to give minor pain relief and would be drank over 40+mins. 2 cups would be drank over 1.5+ hours and would definitely be useful for complete relaxation or really bad pain relief , and 3 cups would have you feeling very very mellow, pain would be pretty much non existent, and would be drank over 2.5+ hours. More then 4-6 cups would need to really be drank over a much longer time period and should not be done often, maybe once a week i guess)
• Drink 1/2 cup (4 ounces) wait 10-30mins and drink the next cup, so on, and so on.
• Typically the more cups of kava you have drank the farther apart you want to space your next glass (this comes naturally its not something you will need to really think about).
• Drinking too much too fast will only cause you to be overwhelmed with kava and then only to have the effects go away within an hour.
• If you pace yourself and really enjoy the experience your night will be much more peacefull. It really does help to drink small amounts spread throughout the night. The effects not only last longer but are stronger as well.
• Drink kava in a dim lit setting either watching some mellow TV or listening to some easy listening music. It really does change the experience.

As I said above this is definitely the 'white mans' way to make kava. If you meet an islander and tell him this method he will probably laugh at you and walk away. Regardless of that fact, I guarantee if you follow this guide you will definitely have an effective cup of kava like that of the islands and a great night alone or with some friends.




Kava Source:

Obviously this plays a huge roll. The only thing buying Kava from a health food store and making it will yield you is a nice head ache and 30 mins of lost time. I like buying my kava from these Three locations:

http://hawaiiankava.com/
http://www.nakamalathome.com/
http://www.vanuatukavastore.com/
Of all of them HawaiianKava.com is my favorite. Kava is like anything else, you get what you pay for. Even with my favorite kava source, HawaiianKava.com, this hold true. Their lowest grade kava, Mahakea, although pretty good kava is weak compared to the others sold, It contains bits of sand, and for some reason when mildly heated will activate starches in the kava powder causing it to thicken. This makes it very hard to strain a batch of kava. His other kava's have never done this to me but the Mahakea will do it every time.

Choosing a Blender:
Does it really mater if I have a high quality blender? Yes it does! There are two reason why: 1. If your blender is cheap and doesn't spin really really really fast it won't agitate the kava water mixture enough to extract the 'kavalactones'. 2. If your blender is cheap and it does actually spin fast enough then you will cause the blender to overheat its self and it will self destruct within the 1-5 time making kava. ( i have gone through quite a few)

My two favorites, although very expensive, are the Vitamix Model 5200 and the Waring MX1050XT. The Waring is an actually commercial mixer that boast a 3.5hp motor and the Vita mix is a consumer blender that that has a 2hp motor. Surprisingly enough the BETTER blender is actually considerably CHEAPER.

Waring Blender:


Cost - $294.00 here: http://www.webstaurantstore.com/waring- ... 050XT.html


Pros:

• Easy to clean control surface
  
• Insane Power
  
• Looks Nice
• Built for Long Periods of use (this is really important with blending kava)
• Compared to the Vita Mix its price is a Bargain
• Optional noise canceling Waring SE1000 Large Sound Enclosure. (below)
  


Cons:

• Extremly Loud


Vita Mix Blender:


Cost - $449.00 here: http://www.everythingkitchens.com/vita- ... _1372.html


Pros:

• Lots of Power
• Built for Long Periods of use (this is really important with blending kava)


Cons:

• Loud
• Very ugly with an incredibly out dated look
• Very Expensive

[yee]

Nice, kdoske! Impressive, well written and illustrative article.

Have you tried coconut water (not the white milk) instead of whole cow's milk? (Ref. 12/31/09 reply) I think both are effective as the cow's milk and coconut water have fats to help bind with the kavalactones. Of course this could be a matter of taste as not everyone likes coconut and/or milk. I guess one advantage is that the coconut water kava brew would last longer in the fridge as there's less protein than the cow's milk.

[kdoske]

Nice, kdoske! Impressive, well written and illustrative article.

Have you tried coconut water (not the white milk) instead of whole cow's milk? (Ref. 12/31/09 reply) I think both are effective as the cow's milk and coconut water have fats to help bind with the kavalactones. Of course this could be a matter of taste as not everyone likes coconut and/or milk. I guess one advantage is that the coconut water kava brew would last longer in the fridge as there's less protein than the cow's milk.

Thanks! Thats interesting, I have only every tried Coconut Milk. I stopped doing it because I drink kava 3 or 4 times a week and I found it was starting to have a, well.....purging effect! . I will give the Coconut water a try, do you think I would experience the same problem?

[kdoske]

Ok, I recently ran out of milk and was only able to use a 3:1 ratio of water and milk. What I found was that the effects were the same but it was much easier to strain. I guess the heat mixed with the milk and kava must cause the starches to thicken. When less milk is used the thickening is also less. In light of this I am changing my recipe from 1:1 to 3:1. (example: 3 cups water to 1 cup milk)

[kavachief]

Well I have found a number of great recipes using blender and Doesn't require the straining from Better Living Products (http://www.BetterLivingUSA.com) not listed. These Folks have super fine milled Kava Powder and it's REAL ROOT Powder not chemically derived extracts. The web-blogs has recipes that are both unique and tasty. Personally, find that westerns are learning about the wonders of Kava herb! The key to great Kava drinking whether by traditional bowl or blender is the Roots and the company one keeps. Bula!