Hey folks

So I could do with some help/advice with some San Pedro tea I've prepared for further extraction via A/B.

I've boiled up a heck of a lot of blended San Pedro (I know this isn't ideal) Anyway I did 3 medium temp boils with lemon juice, not exceeding 100C. I combined all the resulting brownish green liquid as per any other tea I've made.

I poured it into a large mason jar and let it rest. When I returned about 30 mins later I noticed a light green almost white sediment at the bottom. I've had sediment before but this was a lot in only 30 mins. The sediment also appears to be precipitating out of the tea. I've attached a few pics.
You can see the tell tale signs of precipitation at the top of the jar.

My Ph meter is out of batteries so I have no way to check that tonight. All I can think of is that the jar had Lye residue in it - even though I washed it thoroughly after my last tek, and before adding the tea.

Is there any risk of saponification? No oils, vegetable or other have come near the tea except of course the pedro oils.
What the heck could be precipitating.
will proceeding with a regular A/B tek work at this point?

I checked some of it and it's not soapy at all.

This is really worrying me as it was a lot of raw material.

Any help would be great. Thanks

How thoroughly was the tea filtered? Was powdered cactus used as the starting material? It looks to me like there is a chance that what you are seeing is tiny amounts of plant matter sediment settling to the bottom of the jar.

How much san pedro? Probably plant material, but try filtering it out and see if it tastes like mesc. Also see if it dissolves in some acidic water, if it doesnt it isnt anything worth keeping. Then just proceed with your usual A/B.

Thanks guys.

I decided to add some diluted Hcl acid as the Ph was at 10 (I went to a store at 1am in a panic to get batteries for my meter) - I assume there was loads of lye left behind in the jar from previous teks. It stopped raining whatever the heck it was when the Ph got down to 5.5/6. So I think it was plant fats reacting with the lye, and probably some plant material. I usually see a lot less sediment, but this is one of the largest batches of tea I've made.

I used fresh cacti with skins and spines, blended with water and frozen 4 times. I didn't have any snot issues when boiling or filtering, and I filtered a lot through varying filters, but I know how cactus plant material gets through.

Will filter the precip out, see what it's like and proceed with A/B as planned.

If I have any other issues I'll just post em here as not to needlessly start another thread


Peace