Why are people so focused on the taste?
I do actually enjoy the taste of Ayahuasca, as long as it is not fermented. That sweet honey undertone of a properly reduced brew is probably already engraved in my DNA.
When it comes to Jurema, it kinda goes together with being able to keep it in. And whatever you do you can only pass it from having taste of radioactive poison to simply tasting bad, there's no way around it.
People want in without paying anything.
It doesn't work that way, especially when it comes to medicine.
I agree. It is already so world famous, just imagine if it tasted like soda.. it would have gone extinct already.
PVPP? I had been thinking about trying that too (for Mimosa):
Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) for Mimosa tannin removal
No. Bentonite. I will test it out for the first time, if it is successful I will share the results.
My previous approach has been raising the pH a little with sodium bicarbonate. Adding it spoon wise (dissolved in water) to the brew just until I see the first tannins crashing. Then let it rest in the fridge a few days, decant and re-acidify again. I manage to create a few interesting brews that way, not only was it translucent and wine looking, it did actually taste like a very woody wine.
But I always noticed a significant loss of actives that way so this time I'll try a new approach.
Just as donating to a good cause earns you merit, paying a lot of money could be your way in
It is indeed pricey. But when you live in Europe and want to cook your own medicine it is a good approach.
I've tried lots of different mixtures ingredient wise (in terms of different leaf and vine sources) and besides it being a bit like playing Russian roulette, 90% it works but the results are just average.
Mind you, I cook the traditional way, a pot full to the brim, cooked in the fire. Taking medicine, praying and chanting during the whole process. Well over 12h of cooking and 24h+ more for reduction.
And that's simply too much investment (financial, energetic and time wise) to get just average results.
That is where these extracts come in. Of course it needs to be a good extract. If you know how to choose, not only will you have a good extract with the right consistency, it will have been prepared with fresh material.
My last approach was the most successful until now (after dozens of cookings over the years) and it was the following:
3,5 kg of chacruna
1kg of caapi Vine
Some chaliponga leftovers from a previous cooking (probably around 200 or 300g)
500ml of a good quality 12:1 Cielo caapi extract (equivalent to 6kg if fresh material)
Leaf material was cooked together with 1kg of vine, just so that the vine's energy can fuse with the leaf. 3 cookings of 4h (counting from the moment it starts boiling), filter well, gather all the boilings in one pot, add a small pinch of citric acid, reduce reduce reduce. the last 5 liters are reduced in a hot plat with temperature control. Getting close to the 2 liter mark the brew was already somewhat thick but still runny, that was when I added the caapi extract. From there on I let it reduce very slowly at 70-80°c for 4 more hours.
The results: a thick uniform and potent brew. 20ml is enough to give me visions of the like I only get with Jurema.