I was curious if anyone here had any experience with betel nuts. SWIM got a bunch with his last order from maya.

What is the best way to prepare these things?.. Baking soda?.. I can't find any "pickling lime" like other websites suggest.

You need lime Calcium Hydroxide. Many stores carry it as a pH balancer for salt water fish tanks, it can also be found at some ethno vendor stores.

Baking soda isn't strong enough.

What I do:

I make a mix of herbs, saffron being a big one
Crunch, shred, chop, betel nuts until they are small chunks
mix
add lime, but only a little bit, you don't need much. 1/4teaspoon lime for 1/2 oz of betel nuts.

Also called Pan Parag, or Pan Marsala, you can find pre-prepared betel nuts online sometimes.

I also have some betel nuts but have not got around to trying them out.
Acolon - what are the effects like for you? Also how exactly do you take it?

The effects come on slowly (and I am talking about preprepared betel nut) and usually will have to change out a wad before I really feel the effects. They come with a little spoon inside, that I guess looks to be about 1/3 teaspoon, maybe less.

It produces a mild stimulation very unlike coffee. No jitters (unless you really overdo it), a LOT of saliva, not sure if this is the actives in the nut (ha) or just having something in my mouth, but it pours. If you keep quidding after time the stimulation can really build up, there is some minor euphoria, but don't look for too much, you'll be highly disapointed.

I have found that commercial prepared betel nut is usually not as strong as those I get whole from vendors...my homeaid batch tastes much worse, but effects are felt with much less...but be careful with that lime...I've burned my gums too many times, in fact, I have started cutting the lime with a bit of tums (for flavor and as a buffer) and this has worked well. I have also mixed the prepared betel nuts with some ground up betel nuts (hammer, blender, coffee grinder), this works very well. Either way, same effects, just stronger, and are felt a bit more quickly (20 minutes).

No matter where or what kind of betel nut you get, these things are hard as hell. Let them sit in your gumline for 10-15 minutes to soften before even ATTEMPTING to chew on these things...they'll litterally break your teeth. It produces a red colored spit that will STAIN ANYTHING, be careful about where you spit.

I usually will keep the wad in for 30-40 minutes, chew, spit, put back in the gum line, wait 5 mintues, repeat....do this until it's mush, discard, reload.

Funny, I'm chewing a quid as I write this...

Great for long roadtrips, it'll never replace recreational stims though.