DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 26 Joined: 01-Jan-2023 Last visit: 23-Aug-2023 Location: Work
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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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Boundary condition
Posts: 8617 Joined: 30-Aug-2008 Last visit: 02-Oct-2024 Location: square root of minus one
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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. “There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." ― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 1045 Joined: 12-Mar-2010 Last visit: 11-Jun-2024 Location: Urf
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Isn't coffee + cacti a really dangerous combo? From the unspoken Grows the once broken
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Boundary condition
Posts: 8617 Joined: 30-Aug-2008 Last visit: 02-Oct-2024 Location: square root of minus one
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RhythmSpring wrote:Isn't coffee + cacti a really dangerous combo? 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. 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.) “There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." ― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 26 Joined: 01-Jan-2023 Last visit: 23-Aug-2023 Location: Work
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downwardsfromzero wrote: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. 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!
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Boundary condition
Posts: 8617 Joined: 30-Aug-2008 Last visit: 02-Oct-2024 Location: square root of minus one
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m3dt3ch wrote: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! 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) “There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." ― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 26 Joined: 01-Jan-2023 Last visit: 23-Aug-2023 Location: Work
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downwardsfromzero wrote:m3dt3ch wrote: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! 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) Thank you for your elaboration. 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?
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Boundary condition
Posts: 8617 Joined: 30-Aug-2008 Last visit: 02-Oct-2024 Location: square root of minus one
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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. “There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work." ― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli
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DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 26 Joined: 01-Jan-2023 Last visit: 23-Aug-2023 Location: Work
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downwardsfromzero wrote: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. 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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