Hello everyone,

first of all I want to thank you all for the invaluable information presented on this forum.
Without this I wouldn't even dared to think to try to prepare myself ayahuasca.
I've spent several weeks reading, taking notices, learning and trying to have a clear image of what I need to do.

I just prepared my first ayahuasca, cooking separately black caapi and chaliponga.
I found all the information I needed, to have a very clear picture of what I have to do,
on this forum.

One thing it wasn't very clear for me.
What will be the optimum ratio for water/plant material to use when boiling the plants.

I know that at the end of each wash is best to leave the water level to go down till it just cover the plant material.
But during the actual boiling/simmering how much water is best to have?

I had 250g caapi and 100g chaliponga.
I cooked caapi with 3l of water each wash, going down to 1l water at the end of the 3 hours period, 4 periods.
For chaliponga I used 4l in the first wash, 2.5l in the second and third wash and 1l in the forth wash.

I observed that even the last wash produced a colored tea (of course not as intense and smelling as the previous)
but I was expecting to have a almost colorless water in the last step.
I'm thinking that if I continue with the washes I will still get some colored tea out of these materials.

Did I used too little water for these quantities?


Thanks

I don't know the exact ratios, I'm sure someone around here does.
When I brew I just use the largest pot I have and brew it down for a whole day a few times. No acid, just water.
Works great. I think you probably did OK. Experiment with using more water next time, and if its more effective, you know you should use more.

Welcome to the DMT-Nexus!

Thanks for the response. I'll know soon enough how effective the cooking was
Caapi cooking took me 18h, and chali almost the entire next day (with some breaks).
After the last wash if you had boiled the plant for another 30m-1h would you get a colorless water?

Sounds like a very thorough extraction!
Colorless solutions are usually an indication of spent plant materials.

exactly what I thought.
I think I'll try tomorrow another 3h boil for caapi (I didn't throw it away yet, kept it in the frige),
maybe 1h also for the chaliponga.

I'll use more water for sure next time.

I'm brewin' some up right now. i love love love the smell

the more water the better, i think. And use spring water if you can or at least filtered water. Your reducing a ton of H20 down into small amounts here..and concentrating the alkaloids into a small amount. Which means your also concentrating whatever metals/flouride/contaminates that was in all that water into a much smaller amount of liquid as well

I finished around 1am reducing the chaliponga from a total of 6.5l to 200ml (100g)
For caapi I had 5l which was reduced to 500ml (250g).

I used spring water.
I woke up at 7am here to give caapi another wash for 3hours; I put this time the material in 8l spring water which in 3 hours
will simmer down to around 5l.

Till now between caapi and chaliponga I liked more the smell of caapi.
Chaliponga smell didn't liked me at all, even had some strange sensation in my belly
like I was smelling something with an awful taste.

here they are, chaliponga on the left, a reddish brown and caapi on right a more yellowish brown.
both have around 1cm sediments on the bottom, looks like material, even if I used a very thick cotton canvas.

^Looks good! Sediment will settle to the bottom over time. An extra filtration or decant will help, but is not necessary. I'm well excited to see hear about your future journeys!

Great Looking forward to your adventures.

so, yesterday evening made a caapi only try to see how it feels. I didn't decanted the caapi brew, I shake the jar before every drink.
I also prepared one shot of chaliponga (20ml/10g) and I wanted to clear feel the effects of caapy before drink it, but when that happened it was too late I couldn't get out of bed Next time I'll put the glass in an arm reach.

17:45 drink 40ml/20g black caapi
18:00 another 20ml/10g black caapi
18:15 another 20ml/10g black caapi
18:30 another 20ml/10g black caapi
till here I can move though my room, only slight in dizziness my head
18:45 I'm lying in bed, it started, I feel a strong buzz throughout my entire body, awareness of my room and bed fade away, something is happening inside me that is catching all my attention. I cannot move without severe dizziness, even moving in bed from one side to another is starting a storm inside me, even moving my eyes quickly from one side to another.
Stayed in bed all the time, in darkness, watching my monkey mind thoughts jumping around in an empty space. I could indulge in dreaming the thoughts or try to focus on the empty space and watch the thoughts come and go. I got cold, I breath through my mouth most of the time to easy the taste of caapi left in my mouth or which came from my stomach.
21:30 I purged, filling a little better (because I crawl to my computer to take my phone); back in bed in the black empty space with my thoughts.
22:44 I can get up now, moving through my room but no without effect: after 10 minutes purging again, then going to sleep.

This morning I still feel groggy in my head, and I'm still sensible at the smell of the brew.
The next try will be together with chaliponga.

I think you took a massive dose of harmalas! Gibran has extracted 2% harmalas from black caapi, and I read in other places around 0.9%. Even if we take the lower value, 1% of 50g = 500mg of mixed harmalas (or up to a gram if it had more alkaloids) !!! Thats really much more than necessary... Some people do like this dose but fr me I preffer lower harmala doses. Try 20g caapi instead, and see how that goes. To me, the dose where the MAOs are inhibited is when one feels just a bit dizzy and light sensitive, with a certain light-head feeling and a distinct but soft buzz.

yes, I know now was more then necessary for MAO inhibition
but it was good as an experience just to see the effects of caapi and get familiar with them.

I'll take a lower dose of caapi next time with chaliponga, I hope
I can cope with sediments from both.