Hi!

So my first attempt at aya was a failure and I am not sure where I went wrong. I'm sure I've made a mistake somewhere but I don't know where. If you have any advice I would be grateful.

I measured 21g of mimosa bark, chopped into small chunks. It was boiled very gently with 350ml of water, 50ml of lemon juice and 2 vitamin C tablets, 200mg each. They were mashed with a stainless steel potato masher for about 40 minutes until the water was a murky red. The lot was put into a funnel with a cloth filter and squeezed out until the mimosa was almost dry. The remaining mimosa was put back in the pan with the same water/lemon/vit C mix another two times, each very gently boiled for about half an hour.

The collected murky red brew was put back in the pan with a low heat, gentle boil until it reduced right down, then egg whites were added until they were no longer opaque, then filtered again until the remaining brew was like a red milk.

The brew was put in the fridge overnight, the top red water layer decanted into glasses and the sludge at the bottom discarded. This was poured into 3 shot glasses, 7g mimosa brew each.

9g of Syrian Rue was put in a glass with 150ml of water, 50ml of lemon juice and left overnight for CWE. I wasn't sure how effective this would be, but the resulting juice tasted fucking awful and not a bit like lemon water. This was also put in 3 separate shot glasses and drunk 25 minutes before the mimosa brew was taken. I had some pickled ginger after for the nausea.

Nothing happened. I felt a little out of sorts, but nothing more. The rue gave me light tingles on the back of my neck and some mild diarrhea, after an hour with the mimosa brew I noticed very, very mild visual changes, but I wasn't sure if they were there or if I wanted them to be there and the low light was helping me see that.

What could have went wrong? I have used the same mimosa to extract DMT with a healthy yield, so I know it's active. Rue, I have no experience of, but the horrible bitter taste of the CWE was more than lemon. It could have been the rue at a guess - I bashed it with a hammer while it was in a plastic food bag, but it barely made a dent, though I've read the cold water method is effective.

I dunno. I'm not ready to give up.

Any ideas?

You need to be sure that your herbs and rue seeds are thoroughly pulverized. If they are not pulverized enough then they will not extract well. Go to the store and buy a coffee grinder for that it works perfectly.

You also need more water to extract things properly. For the 21g I would recommend about 800ml water each pull, and pull atleast 3 times, simmering about 30 minutes each. You want enough water for the goodies to absorb into, and make note of when the herbs become exhausted and there isnt as much color absorbing into the liquid from the herbs, indicating you got all the alkaloids out of the bark and into your brew. After letting sediment fall out if desired, with all your collected pulls you can reduce the volume down to the desired serving size by boiling. Perform the same type extraction on your rue, making sure to get all the alkaloids. Also keep in mind only add as much lemon juice that you are comfortable with drinking. Hope this helps!