Getting ready to make changa for the first time, and I have a question about potency.

It seems that most people go with a 1:1 ratio of plant matter to dmt, but if you're vaporizing, wouldn't it be practical to make a weaker blend so you can more easily eyeball a dose instead of having to weigh it out with a milligram scale?

With dmt it's so easy to accidentally get more than you bargained for, and with a vaporizer it's not hard to inhale the essence of a lot of plant material in one go, so why is it the norm to make such potent changa?

Does the addition of an MAOI necessitate more dmt? Or does this crowd just like to trip balls?

I guess when folk started out with 1:1 they just figured they didn't need any more caapi than that to get the magic difference. This way when it was being smoked more traditionally out of pipes and bongs it was less smoke to be inhaled, making the experience more comfortable.

I say it's best to customise your own ceremony as with a VG I do actually use 2x as much caapi for the same reason stated above, but just so I can also get some more caapi

I think you can put a little bit of changa in your bowl and puff on it slower to build up to the level you want. As opposed to just loading 30mg of spice and trying to vape it in one hit.

Personally, once I reach a certain point, smoalking moar is such a foreign concept to me that I couldn't push farther even if I wanted to. This is why I always aim to take the entire hit in one lungful.

I add freebase caapi alks to my blends instead of caapi leaf which I don't really like the taste of and both vape simultaneously. I dunno about you but when I smoke I tend to like to either be on the verge of a breakthrough, or fully immersed, I find lower doses (below 15mg) tend to be a bit of a let down these days...

If you are worried about weighing doses while tripping, you can always weigh 3-4 beforehand which can easily be reloaded at the flick of the wrist. This also means you won't accidentally smoalk too much and do yourself a mischief. I usually go for 15mg as a warm up, then another couple at 20-30mg to blast me through.

This is why I like mine moar potent

I usually vaporize 25mg in my GVG.

I'm not really worried about weighing doses while tripping. My real concern is, I wanted to fly somewhere and bring my spice with me. I thought that it might be better to travel with changa than with dmt crystals. Rather than have to pack a milligram scale, I was thinking that a less potent changa blend might enable me to eyeball my habitual dose accurately enough that if I make a mistake, it won't be a completely mind-shattering one

I thought the same as you when I made my first enhanced DMT batch. I decided to make it on the weak side (about 1 part DMT: 2 part leaf). Anyways I was unhappy with how it turned out. You would need to smoke twice the plant material to get equivalent effects. Since I wasn't using any MAOIs, I wasn't able to get a very deep trip because by the time you could think to take your second hit, you'd be back. Also, since I don't smoke much, it was harder to do large hits at once. I'd imagine this would be different for real changa since the MAOIs prolong the trip.

For my next batch I'm going to do 1:1 ratio of leaf to DMT. At least with the 2:1 ratio, it was easy to eyeball, and I'd imagine that even with a 1:1 ratio you'd be able to eyeball a dosage once you've had enough practice. Just err on the side of a smaller dosage and take a second hit if the first one doesn't take you as far as you want.