The smashing was done in the traditional fashion, by hand, on stumps fixed to the floor of the feitio shed, covered with a white canvas (some other feitio places might employ machines to chop up branches). Barefoot, the smashers pounded the vine sticks with rhythmic punches, following the cadence of hymns sung nonstop, hours on end.
On that particular day the work continued till around 5 a.m. Each pot was then stacked with seven layers of the two ingredients. In the first layer, sturdy jagube fibers cover the bottom of the pot, in order to avoid direct contact—and consequent burning—of the chacruna leaves with the metal. Once there is a bed of green leaf material, fibers can be layered with the powder, also produced in the smashing of jagube.
In the feitio during the Chacruna retreat, each pot received 40 kilograms (kg) of vines, 8 kg of leaves, and 60 liters of water. After a few hours over the fire the yellowish-brown liquid is reduced to half the volume and then collected in the drainer, a metal gutter mounted on a wooden frame. At this point the brew is not yet considered daime, i.e. it cannot be used as sacrament in rituals.
