How to brew the most potent tea?

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Brewmesideways
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:53 am
Location: Finland

Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:00 am

When they're boiling Ayahuasca in a big pot over a fire in the jungle, they brew the tea in the pot for many hours. Does it make the tea more potent by brewing it for so many hours?

What happens if I brew my tea on the stove for hours, does it get more potent? It seems to get more bitter, but I don't care about the taste, I only care about the effect the tea has in my body.
averyf
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Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:30 pm
Location: rural New England

Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:38 pm

Do you mean potency in terms of caffeine? If so, brewing it for many hours at a high temperature does extract more caffeine than a short or cool steep of the same leaves, yes. It results in a very bitter tea that doesn't taste good without additives, though.

Other ways to get more caffeine from tea would include resteeping your tea many times over the course of a session until you've gotten everything you can from it, using more leaves for the same quantity of water, or opting for matcha (which involves drinking the actual leaves in powdered form rather than just water in which the leaves have steeped).

As far as I'm aware, ayahuasca doesn't usually contain tea, so the reasons for boiling it for many hours may be different. Possibly it takes a long time to extract the psychoactive elements, or maybe it alters the chemical profile of the brew?
Brewmesideways
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Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:00 pm

averyf wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:38 pm
Do you mean potency in terms of caffeine? If so, brewing it for many hours at a high temperature does extract more caffeine than a short or cool steep of the same leaves, yes. It results in a very bitter tea that doesn't taste good without additives, though.

Other ways to get more caffeine from tea would include resteeping your tea many times over the course of a session until you've gotten everything you can from it, using more leaves for the same quantity of water, or opting for matcha (which involves drinking the actual leaves in powdered form rather than just water in which the leaves have steeped).

As far as I'm aware, ayahuasca doesn't usually contain tea, so the reasons for boiling it for many hours may be different. Possibly it takes a long time to extract the psychoactive elements, or maybe it alters the chemical profile of the brew?
Ah to clarify I mean potency from the potential effect of plants, for example rosemary, chamomille, st johns wort etc.
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debunix
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Location: Los Angeles, CA

Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:30 pm

I like to enjoy my tea, so have never considered brewing for maximum 'effect'. But you'd need to know how heat-stable the compounds are in the effect you want 'enhanced' since some things will break down with long heating (e.g., vitamin C).
theredbaron
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Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:02 am
Location: Germany

Tue Oct 12, 2021 5:25 pm

Brewmesideways wrote:
Sat Sep 11, 2021 2:00 pm
Ah to clarify I mean potency from the potential effect of plants, for example rosemary, chamomille, st johns wort etc.
I believe you are in the wrong place here.
This place isn't about drugs, getting high, etc.

This is about tea culture and appreciation, in particular Chinese and Japanese.
The "potency" of the teas we drink here is often called "cha qi" - but that is a bit more esoteric than how to brew tea, but a force that is inherent to very good teas, especially teas from very old plants, and something that takes lots of skill and education to be able to feel.

The effect you get from overbrewing tea, or drinking too much tea, is a caffeine flash, and that is something extremely unpleasant.
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