Gonna try it for the first time very soon and I just want to get an idea of what to expect.

Is it so horrible that you have to choke it down?

Do you drink it warm or cold?

For me it tastes very good. Many people would say the opposite. It is up to you to decide once you have tried. Do not worry about that too much.

You can drink it worm or cold up to you. Maybe its better to leave it in fridge over night to let it set and then decant the drink from what sets on the bottom. That way it should be easier on your stomach.

Caapi tastes great !!!

If you are lucky you can even have a strain that tastes sweet.

IF you have used vinigar in the pre soak or boiling stage you must make shure you boil out the vinigar otherwise you will taste it.

That about sums it up very well.

To me, it didn't taste bad or good, just herb-like.

However, several hours later I did get really sick from it (even though I had it on an empty stomach), but that was when I was eating a bad diet so I'm thinking I just had too many toxins in me and needed the purge.

I don't really get this.
Reduced to 30-50ml, my caapi tea tastes overwhelmingly bitter, salty and foul.
Are we drinking the same plant ? For me it is almost unthinkable, that some people enjoy the taste. Everytime i take the tiniest sip, i shudder in disgust for half a minute and try not to empty my stomach contents immediatly.

Unreduced caapi tastes quite ok, I can imagine someone sayings its 'good'. Reduced caapi done on high fire tastes horrible, very very bitter. Reduced caapi done on low fire/simmering tastes strong but manageable. Over-reduced caapi tastes worse.

Adding acid to it makes it taste worse, I suggest brewing your aya without acid, 4x boils (no need for so many hours), reduce on low fire to 50-100ml per dose (more = better taste but more to swallow, less = stronger taste but can drink in a sip faster)... Dont throw the caapi out, then do a long multiple-day acid soak followed by boiling, doing this once or twice and ideally blending or freezing the bark, specially if it very very finely shredded to begin with. With this, extract the alkaloids. That way you have most/all alkaloids and yet you drink only the nicer tasting aya.

Caapi made in the above mentioned way tastes woody and somewhat bitter but not too much, quite decent imo.

Maybe it's also possible different caapi varieties have differing tastes? im not sure...

Ok, I'm sure there are a bunch of ways to do the caapi extraction right? Which method do you suggest? What is it called? I can look it up on the site.

gibran2 easy caapi tek in our wiki is a good one.. If you dont have lye or dont want to use it you can go with sodium carbonate but the product precipitates much dirtier, so you have to redissolve, filter and reprecipitate several times more.

Of course a caapi brew can have different tastes.
Depending on a lot of factors.

Why I say it tastes great. Its because I love caapi.
It doessent matter if it makes me shake, or its a taste from the sewer, its always great.
Its about mindset, the more you are focussed on the horrible smell and taste the more you will react to it.

Perssnally I love to let my brews ferment a lot.
It gives more personality to it like it does to wine.
A nice old fermented caapi, hmm jummy.

Taking medicine is not about taking something delicious.
Its about commitment and starts with the brewing and it just keeps on going.

I dont quite agree on the over reduced caapi or aya.
There this aya caled mel, meaning honey.

Its been reduced to a syrup, if you put the glass upp side down and it wont come out,you need a spoon to get it out.
I recently had this kind of aya again.
The taste was divine, so extremely sweet and gentle. The ultimate !

Brewing caapi and or with admixtures is a art by it self.

I actaully do enjoy the taste of caapi, though I dont like the taste of rue. Caapi is very very bitter though and when reduced makes me shudder as well...not in discust though..

I dunno minxx cant drink it unless it is in chocolate almond milk. I dont mind it though.

That 4x caapi tastes pretty swell imo.
It's definitely one of the nicest, earthiest teas I've had the pleasure of consuming.

That's without any admixtures though...

i like the taste of un-reduced warm caapi. Heavily reduced stuff though is pretty wretched..Although compared to rue or mimosa, it tastes amazing

Thats true I drank mel a couple of times before, extremely potent, but while IME it has a sweet taste, it also had a strong bitterness to it, but its so little that you drink that you dont feel it for too long. Also I think it depends how you reduce it (and maybe variety too?)

Its been a few years since I had some though. Are you taking it as a part of santo daime?

I love caapi and admix brew now that I stopped putting vinegar or any acid to it.
It may pull more actives but makes for a harder to drink down tea. Now can make pretty smooth (as long as you love this plant) drink, if you're not new to all these roots, vines and leaves bittered !

I would recommend to make sure your water is at most 7 pH as higher will not pull as much actives and tap water is most of the time slightly basic to avoid organism life form.

Enjoy aya !

^ I just found out my spring water is about ph 7.4 ...it is all I brew with and it pulls TONS of actives.

I had mel a few times, and yes as a part of santo daime.

Quite recently I did a work in brazil.
There I drank mel from equador.
It was the sweetest ever, i almost believed it was mixed with real honey. but it was also not that strong, no bitterness just sweet mellowness.
It was quite funny standing for a long time with the glass uppside down looking at the daime slowly gliding down

The potent version of mel is like drinking instant light

I made aya of this kind of consistency also but yes it was a combination of sweet and bitter.

Hmmm, from what I know in the amozon the water they use to brew is not tap water and this water is "slightly" acidic.

To use vinigar in your boils is not a problem at all.
When you reduced to 50 % just add more water again and boil the vinigar out of the brew.

the brew still tastes like vinegar though..it leaves a weird taste you just cannot get out. Il never brew with vinegar again. I als noticed no potency loss when I started to brew with sping water at ph 7.4 ..others have drunk these brews also and I have seen people floored by it.

boiling the plants into the water most likely makes the water acidic anyway I would think.

awesome...I will check it out.