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Why does Ayahuasca taste so good?

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Jagube

Jagube

Esteemed member
Some may disagree that Ayahuasca tastes good, but everything is relative and if you compare it to the taste of extracted harmala salts (I'm mostly familiar with the acetates and citrates and they're not that different, so I'm assuming all salts taste equally bad; please correct me if I'm wrong) then it's like honey.

If the tea contains harmala salts, why don't I taste them when I drink it? Something must be masking that vile, revolting bitterness. I've tried mixing harmala salts with honey and it didn't help much (it wasn't much honey though, more might make a difference?).

I've noticed that when I mix my harmalas with vine tea and DMT-plant tea, it does help to an extent; of course the higher the tea / extracted harmalas ratio, the better the taste gets. Could it be the dilution? Or something in those teas - perhaps certain types of sugars that are especially good at masking the harmala taste, or even some tannins that trap them?

And most importantly, could this taste-bud heaven effect of Ayahuasca be replicated without using Ayahuasca plants? Maybe by adding other plant material, like random sticks picked up in the park and decocted?
 
Yeah the one ayahuasca is not the other to drink. :twisted:

Before concentrating the brew, a caapi tea is actually not bad. Only from a certain point of concentration the gruesome taste sets in.

For people who consider micro dosing caapi, they might drink unreduced aya tea, perhaps diluted if wanted, having a bottle/day of slightly coloured tea at hand even at work, taking a sip now and then spread over time. Or have a reduced tea diluted back into a watery tea. Add anything you want, guayusa, whatever. Only thing to know is how much caapi vine equivalent is in your bottle to fit the micro dosing of choice.
 
A nice ayahuasca, although bitter can have a very warm and sweet aroma with a unique taste all of it's own. I always brew very slowly and serve warm, as when it cools the mouth feel can be a little clingy.

Then again, some ayahuasca just tastes bitter, but beyond the bitterness I'd never say it was unpleasant and I always associate bitter with 'goodness'. All the best stuff in isolation is bitter!

Anyone who complains about the flavour of ayahuasca needs to try a good strong cactus brew... that's a whole other beast!

edit: Just realised I joined here over ten years ago now :)
 
metadimethyl said:
Just a quick question, do you drink the powder/mud when you are brewing own mimosahausca?
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No need to drink the mud.
If it was powdered bark then the actives will go in the water pretty fast.
A cold water extraction on powdered bark works like a charm, let it soak for 2 days in the fridge, shake now and then, filter, presto. I used to make pH first to 3 with some acid but that might be not needed if your water is distilled or demin. Never tried with straight tap water. The fridge temperature keep unwanted material to enter the water.
 
I've never had "gruesome" Ayahuasca, no matter how concentrated. At my concentration levels, 15ml is a full dose. I drink it with all the mud; tastes like candy compared to isolated harmalas. I haven't found cactus tea to taste bad either.
 
metadimethyl, don't drink the bark powder mud.
The sediment in an ayahuasca cup is another mud all together, that can be drank.
 
Hmmm I love aya but certainly not the taste. I can see the potential, though. For those who enjoy it, do you brew with vinegar? I'm guessing that's one of the reasons i don't like it. I don't care what anyone says, vinegar may boil off but the taste certainly does not :sick:
 
Lowtones said:
...vinegar may boil off but the taste certainly does not :sick:
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You can get far by boiling it hard while reducing the volume.
If you start with demin water or distilled or tap water that is not hard on minerals, no acid is really needed. The advantage of vinegar is that if you reduce volume it will not concentrate into something too acid, this in contrast to phosphoric acid for example. I've used phosphoric acid with good result, at pH you 3 don't really taste that as a bad acid (i.e. cola) , but I did not reduce those volumes, those were to drink as unreduced tea's. Also ideal for cold water extractions that won't be reduced in volume.
 
I think I may not have been clear in my intention for starting this thread, which is to find out how this non-badness of taste can be replicated by adding something into isolated harmalas. Perhaps I should have posted it in the harmala subforum to make it clear.

I might experiment with neutral (inactive) sticks, bark etc.
 
The admixture portion, or filtered & reduced hawaiian leaf in dreams tastes pretty bad, but results in extreme quality and strength in it's natural hot liquid salt form. The dynamics of digestion allow it to work extremely well. The caapi portion is not too bad in taste.
 
tregar said:
The admixture portion, or filtered & reduced hawaiian leaf in dreams tastes pretty bad, but results in extreme quality and strength in it's natural hot liquid salt form. The dynamics of digestion allow it to work extremely well. The caapi portion is not too bad in taste.
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Aaaaah good point!

See when I hear ayahuasca I just think of the vine alone. But yes admixtures are highly funky.
 
Ive only had proper Ayahuasca in South Americe and then it has been a thick syrup with a sweet taste. I may be wrong but Ive always thought this is due to pyrolysis of the sediment in the pot while cooking. Cf. Caramelization of onions.

You can always offset the sour, bitter taste with something sweet like honey (same as with coffee). Please be aware though that adding honey will increase the absorption time of the brew.
 
OwlMan said:
Ive only had proper Ayahuasca in South Americe and then it has been a thick syrup with a sweet taste. I may be wrong but Ive always thought this is due to pyrolysis of the sediment in the pot while cooking. Cf. Caramelization of onions.

You can always offset the sour, bitter taste with something sweet like honey (same as with coffee). Please be aware though that adding honey will increase the absorption time of the brew.
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Yes, it can have a caramel-like taste. Even a bit of a sweet smell.

It could be that something of a maillard reaction is responsible for the difference in taste between pure alkaloids and a caapi brew.
 
Thanks guys. So if it's pyrolysis or Maillard reaction, adding extracted harmalas (mostly harmine and THH) to an unreduced Caapi brew and reducing it might work to produce good-tasting 'fortified' Ayahuasca?

Would I have to boil it hard at least for a while, instead of just reducing it at a sub-boiling temperature?

I also wonder what the highest harmalas-to-vine ratio would be that would preserve the good taste?
 
Hmm, I had the impression that the "bad" taste of Ayahuasca is due to some kind of mental association of memories of past experiences. As more times you drink it, the more it tastes like s**t. If you have purged several times, even the smell of the brew can makes you want to vomit. Or at least, this is my experience.

If I remember the first two, three times I drank "authentic" brew, I actually liked the taste. Buf after, it's getting worse and you can see the amount of experience of a drinker by the face he makes when he swallow. It doesn't tastes better with time :lol:
 
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