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San Pedro Tea prepping, sticky slime on side of pots?

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AiL762

AiL762

\-= Conquer Your Fears =-/
So as best I tried to include in the subject.

I tried my first attempt at making a tea with 20g of San pedro powder last weekend. I noticed after straining, cheese cloths, etc, during the reduction of the brown liquid I would have this sticky slimy residue building up on the walls of the pan as it reduced.

I didn't utilize the slime and took just whatever what purely liquid with some rhodiola capsules. Was a very lite trip, felt like some cross between a weed edible and a couple drinks. Never done mescaline before so I don't have a reference point.

I'm currently doing a reduction of 50g, and I'm starting to think the residue might be active? Any ideas on this? Before I end up taking it and put my stomach through torture lol

I tried searching and browsing, can't see it really referenced other than on some places talk about letting all the water evap and scrape the residue? Is the slime I'm talking about that same scrapable residue?

Thank you all and much love. Really looking forward to being active on here again soon enough. Life been super busy.
 
No I havnt seen that one. Seems extremely easy though. I only have 1lb, so wanted to experience the full san pedro and less likely I'll botch up the extract.

I'm hoping with this tea I'll get there and Def willing to try pure mescaline next.

Here's some pics in case it's not obvious what I'm talking about.
 

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This may sound crazy but one good way to avoid having slime climbing up the walls of the saucepan when reducing cactus tea is to use a lid - or rather, several lids. Steam condenses on the lid and can be wiped off and the lid cooled in cold water. Meanwhile, of course, another cold lid has been covering the saucepan and a fresh amount of condensate collects.

So you have one lid on the pan, one lid being wiped and the third one cooling off. Another good thing is if you use a rubber spatula to wipe off the condensed steam, you can collect the distilled water. The upshot of all this is that the humidity in the pan remains high enough to prevent the slime drying and congealing on the sides of the pan, which is what leads it to stick there and start climbing up. It actually forms a film on the surface of the liquid before making its way to the sides and it's the formation of this film which is prevented by using a lid.

It might seem a bit labour intensive but you shouldn't be leaving your [edit: one shouldn't leave one's] cactus brew unattended anyhow. The alternative might be to use some kind of alembic.
 
Nice, I honestly thought about using a lid and convinced myself I shouldn't for might take too long to reduce or increase Temps too much as was only simmering (was worried about burning /ruining it which I now know boiling does no harm). Def will be utilizing next time.

Yeah it wasn't unattended, I would see the film develop on the surface but first kept thinking it was something that needed to be filtered out, so occasionally I would mix back in, but overall I let it just develop as was going to attempt to remove it. I'm glad I didn't, as if I'm understanding correctly it's essentially all my fault it happened and is part of the drinkable brew?
 
It may have been misleading for me that I was actually getting to do something instead of standing around watching a pot, but it seemed to me like the reduction was a bit quicker with the lids. Maybe the filmy layer inhibits evaporation? My observations were the same as yours prior to coming up with the 3-lid technique - wondering whether the congealed stuff contained good things and how to get it off the side of the pan without increasing the liquid volume unnecessarily.

I don't know what other people do when simmering down cactus tea to a drinkable dose size but I think most of them can't be bothered to fiddle around with lids constantly throughout the process. Maybe they just accept the loss of this small amount.

The only stuff I've removed when simmering down cactus brews is the foamy scum that sometimes forms early on. My brews have generally been pretty easy-going on my stomach, fwiw. (That might just be me though.)
 
The slime is mainly cactus pectin, extracted by water. Some actives are definitely in there, so it should be scraped back into the reduced tea.
But I would definitely suggest to use different solvent to extract cactus powder.
 
doubledog said:
The slime is mainly cactus pectin, extracted by water. Some actives are definitely in there, so it should be scraped back into the reduced tea.
Click to expand...
Would pectinase break down the pectin and significantly reduce the amount of slime?
 
doubledog said:
Yes, pectinase could be used for that purpose. It will partially break it and make the tea more watery.
Click to expand...

Ooooo. Ty for that. I was kinda intimidated about this reduction being so thick. I added a bit of water for this attempt, but think im going to pick some up next time and see how minimal I can make it. I plan on giving this 50g a go tomorrow after the gym unless something comes up.
 
downwardsfromzero said:
Maybe they just accept the loss of this small amount
Click to expand...

That's what I think as well. I'm on the same boat as you though, if I'm doing it, might as well try to do it with effort and patience.
 
So been busy and hadnt had an opportunity I would've liked to take. Didnt realize over 3 weeks had passed lol its been in the fridge. Would it be still good to take? Any ideas whats the shelf life if i decided to make a few batches and keep them on the fridge for extended periods of time?

Also, next go around I'm going to do the extraction. I'm assuming the crystals are pretty stable, just avoid light humidity etc?
 
If you ever make tea again you could always store it in the freezer. It lasts for a very long time that way. In the fridge it could start to spoil after awhile, but it would probably still get you high.
 
AiL762 said:
So been busy and hadnt had an opportunity I would've liked to take. Didnt realize over 3 weeks had passed lol its been in the fridge. Would it be still good to take? Any ideas whats the shelf life if i decided to make a few batches and keep them on the fridge for extended periods of time?

Also, next go around I'm going to do the extraction. I'm assuming the crystals are pretty stable, just avoid light humidity etc?
Click to expand...
Tea in the frig will start to grow mold on top after a few weeks. That happened to me once. I pressure cooked the tea to hopefully kill anything, then drank as normal. I'm still here.

From then on I always froze my tea unless I was drinking it right away. Crystals from an extraction should last a very long time if kept away from heat, light, and moisture.
 
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