Hello There,


I recently had read a few posts of members here, that they roasted there Harmala seeds as a way to convert the taste of the seeds, which helps enormously!

Now I have a question about the color of the roasted seeds. Is there a specific color that the seeds should have? Because right now I have roasted the seeds a couple of times and I noticed different colors depending on the duration, that I had the pan on the stove.
To a somewhat more darker brownish color to a color that is close to black.
I had read that the smell should be ¨nice¨ but it should not smelled as burned.
The smell of the more blackish looking seeds did not smelled burned per se. Would you Harmala-Roasting-Experts out here say that a any color resembling black is a no-no.
I know consuming burned substance's can increase the likely hood of developing cancer.
So I would like to know what the color of the roasted seeds should look like.

I do the roasting by ear. I try to roast the seeds just enough to make most of the seeds pop put not more. I try to evade seeds turning black.

REally? I use an iron pan

But seriously, the brew does taste much better if burning of the seeds is avoided. There's an optimum point of roasting that means the brew is almost enjoyable, with a nutty/coffee taste. The colour will be a very dark brown but not black. Seeds that are actually burnt go back in the direction of disgusting to quite a considerable degree.

Another thing that keeps the flavour of the brew more in the direction of palatable is to avoid unnecessary addition of acids, vinegar being particularly revolting in this respect.

I'm dying

I roast until a few are burnt, then toss into boiling water. I've learned that it's hard to get all of them to pop without burning the majority.

One love

Had to revisit here in the interest of accuracy - this morning I noticed while roasting some seeds (finally, it's been too long) that they first lighten before darkening. When roasted optimally for my tastes they're more of a mid-brown and the very dark brown I mentioned above only appears once they're in the water. Because I live in an area with very hard water, I tend to use distilled water for at least some of the boils. This removes the need for acidifying with anything but a small scoop of vitamin C powder per boil as well as making for a much clearer brew. The hard water produces abundant precipitates of some kind of calcium salt which I don't care for so much.

So, should I be adding a small amount of acid when boiling for a more effective brew?

One love

Maybe, if your tap water is alkaline. The alkaloids will be present as their salts in the seeds so acid isn't strictly necessary if using distilled/deionised water. I just like to add a bit of ascorbic because it's a vydammin - and because I like being self-contradictory.

Bahahaha, well now I don't know what to do.

I think tonight I'll check my tapes ph. How basic does it need to be for me to consider acid?

One love

What really matters is perhaps the pH of the harmala brew. It is best to have that below 7 to keep the harmine in solution. Just use as little acid as possible for palatability's sake.

Alrighty, so I gave that a whirl, adding the ittiest bittiest amount of white vinegar. 3g last night seemed to have more effect than previous times. Am debating if I want to try adding a little more vinegar (I'm weird and actually like the smell and taste of it anyway), or do what I did last night with 3.5g rue seed.

One love

I may have been over-cautious with my roasting technique. Having roasted my rue seeds for a bit longer this morning, I would now conclude that adding a bit of vinegar would be less detrimental to the taste of properly roasted seeds than it is when added to a brew made with only partially roasted seeds. Bon appetit!

This morning's brew was made with roasted seeds and distilled water only, without addition of any acid (so much for controlling one variable), and seems to be comparable in activity with yesterday's brew which was roasted less but had 80mg ascorbic acid added to each of the 4 brews of 125mL distilled water. (I do take a magnesium supplement separately, btw.)

The flavour of today's brew was the best to date.

I have changed my method a bit. No more roasting by ear 🙂

It seems that if you let most of the seeds pop, you are likely to get burnt seeds which taste bad and don't have the alkaloids left.

I'm currently experimenting with roasting as little as possible. It seems that even a light roast helps a lot with the taste. Getting consistent results is difficult and you don't quite know how strong dose you get.

I've changed my roasting as well. I now roast them on high, and at the peak of popping, dump the pan into acidic water. Brews have been noticeably more potent with this method.

One love

This thread has really borne some fruit in the main part of the forum: Dark Roast Rue Brew - 5 Grams.

Roasting the seeds eliminates harmaline somehow and allows the production of a harmine-only brew without resorting to complicated separation methods.

Of course it destroys some precious alkaloids but rue is typically cheap enough for this to be of little consequence.


Have you checked the blacklight fluorescence of these brews?

I have not. But thank you for posting as I've changed my roasting method again and forgot to update. That said, I'm not roasting on high until I hear a few pops and immediately drop it to a low medium temp. From here I stir the seeds in the pan to help prevent burning until the majority have popped, turning a grayish color. Then I steep in boiling acidic water and reduce. I will start observing under blacklight.

One love