I've seen a video recently about how adding salt or saline to low quality coffee reduces the bitterness making it far more enjoyable. Has anyone ever tried adding salt to cactus brews? I have heard of people adding honey to brews or taking a teaspoon to coat their mouth, the latter of which I've done to a decent effect. Can anybody comment on how they have used these particular additives and whether they were successful or not?
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Additives, salt and honey
- Thread starter m3dt3ch
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downwardsfromzero
Boundary condition
I boiled down a cactus brew not such a long while ago and it was pretty salty. In that case adding salt wouldn't have helped at all! Another brew, preserved with alcohol and left to mature for two years, was almost palatable. A pinch or two of frankincense also helped to make it somehow more acceptable so maybe you could try that.
RhythmSpring
Established member
Isn't coffee + cacti a really dangerous combo?
downwardsfromzero
Boundary condition
While I've drunk coffee during a cactus tea experience and appear to have survived unharmed, it's possible to imagine for some people it might prove a bit taxing on the cardiovascular system. I'm more wondering where you may have seen something that led you to ask this question.RhythmSpring said:
I've found that drinking green tea at the later stages of a harmala dose produces noticeable tachycardia for me - more so than the coffee/cactus combo did. Some of this may be dependent on the time of day as well.
(OP was asking about salt in coffee to reduce bitterness and extrapolating to putting salt in cactus brews to improve the flavour, btw.)
How did you preserve it, then how did you store it? Did you add a certain ratio of vodka, or? I have some 95% grain spirit I could use. I'm brewing a fairly huge batch right now and this sounds like a far better way of storing it, especially if it becomes more palatable over the years!downwardsfromzero said:
downwardsfromzero
Boundary condition
I simply added strong alcohol (in this case, 70% abv was what I had access to) until the alcohol content was around 25 - 30% and left it, tightly stoppered, in a dark cupboard for a couple of years. There was a certain amount of sludge from the brew because it was strained through a sieve rather than properly filtered and I get the feeling that this pectin/starchy sludge aided the maturation flavourwise by slowly developing into something of a sweetness that was most certainly absent from the brew when it was freshly prepared. YMMV (YCMV)m3dt3ch said:
Thank you for your elaboration. :ddownwardsfromzero said:I simply added strong alcohol (in this case, 70% abv was what I had access to) until the alcohol content was around 25 - 30% and left it, tightly stoppered, in a dark cupboard for a couple of years. There was a certain amount of sludge from the brew because it was strained through a sieve rather than properly filtered and I get the feeling that this pectin/starchy sludge aided the maturation flavourwise by slowly developing into something of a sweetness that was most certainly absent from the brew when it was freshly prepared. YMMV (YCMV)m3dt3ch said:
What about the alcohol content when you went to consume it, did you boil it a little before-hand to reduce / eliminate the alcohol content?
downwardsfromzero
Boundary condition
I drank it as is. Not to be recommended in cases of alcoholism, of course, but I find alcohol helps prevent the vasoconstriction that mescaline can sometimes cause. It may even help with absorption of the mescaline, and also is not without precedent if you look at some accounts of festivities in Real de Catorce, for example.
I do prefer a freshly-made cactus brew without alcohol but this was just how things rolled at that particular time. Boiling off the alcohol would be entirely do-able if circumstances permit. I'd say the trick is to ensure that the brew is concentrated enough (and known to be so) before considering using this preservation method. It would be best to be able to avoid having to consume an incapacitating amount of alcohol in order to get sufficient of a dose of mescaline. The other approach, which is the one I took, is to drink the huachuma liqueur slowly. This makes it gentler on the stomach and gives the body time enough to eliminate the alcohol without causing excessive intoxication.
I do prefer a freshly-made cactus brew without alcohol but this was just how things rolled at that particular time. Boiling off the alcohol would be entirely do-able if circumstances permit. I'd say the trick is to ensure that the brew is concentrated enough (and known to be so) before considering using this preservation method. It would be best to be able to avoid having to consume an incapacitating amount of alcohol in order to get sufficient of a dose of mescaline. The other approach, which is the one I took, is to drink the huachuma liqueur slowly. This makes it gentler on the stomach and gives the body time enough to eliminate the alcohol without causing excessive intoxication.
downwardsfromzero said:
So I made a massive amount of brew and am preserving it as you suggested, by adding enough of my strong alcohol to make it roughly 30%, and a bunch of white mycelium looking fibrous stuff crashed out. Definitely wasn't contam as the brew had only been brewed a couple of days ago. Any clue what this stuff is?
Edit:
After a little searching it appears this is cactus mucilage, it was quite concerning at first. It appears to be natural to separate as a byproduct of using alcohol for extraction, under low temperatures.
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