One of the greatest tricks when drinking kava is to make it in a shaker cup. Any shaker cup can work here; from protein to cocktail shakers. While you can make kava in a shaker cup there are 3 major steps that you need to follow.
Shaker cups make for a great way to mix the kava with the water if you follow the 3 step process. First, set up your shaker cup with a filter insert wedged into the top near the mouth. Second, make sure you use cold water and fine ground kava. Third, you need to shake the kava for around 30 seconds and then let sit for around 2 minutes before shaking again.
When you follow these 3 steps to mixing kava in a shaker bottle you will make sure you are getting the best quality kava drink. Often when people use a shaker cup to mix kava they treat it like a protein shake or cocktail. This creates a problem because the kava needs time to infuse with the water. The team here at Kava-Bula uses shaker cups all the time but it takes a while to learn. Once you learn however you are golden to mixing kava on the go.
Let’s jump right into the 3 steps to making kava in a shaker bottle.
Make Sure Your Shaker Cup Has a Filter Wedged into the Top
This is a step that many people often forget; you need to make sure your shaker cup has a filter insert at the top near the mouth where the water comes out.
If you don’t have a filter insert then the water itself will still have either the kava root or powder still mixed in with it. Drinking raw kava water is normally not a good idea and can make people sick. It is always best practice to filter your kava water at least one time to remove as much of the kava root as possible.
When using a shaker cup to make kava you need to install a filter insert into the top of the shaker cup. There are two ways you can do this easily at home.
First, you can mix the kava and water together in the shaker cup without a filter. Shake and once you are done take the top off and wedge a coffee filter into the top. Instantly pour the shaker cup over the cause the wet coffee filter to stick to the top of the shaker cup. Now you can pour out the finished kava.
Second, if you are using a shaker cup with a screw on top you can actually screw the top over a coffee filter. This will create the filter only at the mouth of the shaker cup and will allow you to shake and then instantly pour the kava. If you are going to go this route then you should look into getting some high-grade coffee filters online. Kava bars around the United States use this route to impress the guests while also being able to control the quality of the kava by selecting different filters.
As such the first step to making kava in a shaker cup is to make sure you have a filter wedged into the top of the cup itself. By adjusting the filter’s level itself you can make your kava either smoother or more bitter in taste.
Make Sure You Use Fine Grade Kava and Cold Water
When mixing your kava it’s vital that you use room temperature or cold water. Using warm-temperature water can cause the kava to become bad and can lead to people becoming sick.
This is a mistake that a lot of newer kava drinkers make when preparing their own kava. You cant treat kava like tea and brew it hot, this destroys the kavalactones present in the kava and can even be bad for you. People do experiment with hot kava but those are more experienced kava drinkers, I do not recommend using any water hotter than 83 degrees Fahrenheit.
On top of this using hot water to mix kava in a shaker cup can lead to the kava powder sticking together and forming sludge. This will make the kava harder to filter and will lead to a headache when cleaning. Just use cold water in your kava yeah.
With your shaker cup in hand add about 12 ounces of water for every 1 ounce of kava powder. This is a standard formula and you can add more kava if you feel you want a stronger beverage. Adding too much kava powder however can cause your shaker to get clogged so it really depends on the quality of your equipment along with how long you want to shake.
The team at Kava-Bula likes to use fine-grade kava powder when mixing in shaker cups. This is because the fine-grade powder will dissolve and infuse faster than normally mixed powder. On top of this fine grade, the powder is also easier to strain out of the filter in the shaker so it’s an added bonus.
Simply put, using fine-grade powder means less shaking and a faster pour. Gets you and your guests to the enjoying the kava faster part you know.
As such the second step to mixing kava in a shaker cup is to use cold water along with a fine-grade kava powder. This is going to give you the optimal kava mixture for a shaker cup and will lead to a nice beverage.
Shake For 30 Seconds, Let Sit, and Then Shake Again
This is the final step to making kava in a shaker cup. When mixing kava in your shaker cup it is vital that you understand how to do it effectively; you can not treat kava like protein or a cocktail and shake it once.
What the team here at Kava-Bula has found is that the optimal way to make kava in a shaker cup is to first shake hard for around 30 seconds. This is going to break down the fine-grade kava powder into the water and begin to infuse the process. You don’t want to destroy the drink but a very fast shake will do just fine.
After this put the shaker cup down for around 2 minutes. This is going to cause the kava powder to begin to settle to the bottom of the glass and fall down through the water. From our in-house studies, this has led to a drastic increase in the efficiency of the kava mixture.
After 2 minutes of settling you will then need to mix everything back up again and shake for another 30 seconds. You don’t want to wait longer than 2 minutes because the kava will begin to settle on the bottom of the shaker and this can cause problems with both filtering and cleaning.
This final shake is going to last another 30 seconds. Here you don’t want to shake as hard as the first time but give about half the strength. After the 30 seconds are done immediately pour the kava out of the shaker and filter it into the glass.
Congratulations! Now you have successfully used a shaker cup to mix kava.
Summary
That’s about it concerning mixing kava in a shaker cup; just follow the three-step process and you should be good to go.
Now that you know the proper way to mix kava in a shaker cup you can start to add other things to the shaker cup. Some of our best combinations so far are oranges, apple juice concentrate, cocoa powder with chili flakes, and even cotton candy!
As always respect the kava. It is a cultural drink that is starting to gain worldwide appreciation. Kava in itself is designed to bring a local community together to share stories and help. When we drink kava remember we say ‘bula!’ This translates to meaning wishing good health and fortune to your local community. As such, bula to you!
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