Extraction - To make poppy pod tea, will it still work if i grate the heads&not grind??

[Sylvia999]

I'm in uni at the moment living in communal Student flat and I don't own a coffee grinder/blender nor does anyone I know. I was wondering if I grated (aka w a cheese grater) the poppy heads into a powder, instead of grinding/blending them would it still work?

I would imagine it would still work, but was curious as to whether had actually tried&tested this method Cheers xx

[timster7]

Yes. It'll work. It'll take a lot of time. Any thing that increases surface area will work. Unless you want a slurry remember that eventually you will want to filter it, so don't grate it too much. Another option might be crushing it or using a grater for nutmeg.

[kant]

SWIM finds this question slightly amusing. Does SWIY suppose the opiate alkaloids will somehow fly off in the air if a grater, the purpose of which is basically the same as that of a grinder, is used? The alkaloids are in the pod material, turning it into smaller particles just makes it much easier for the alkaloids to get absorbed by water. So one can just as well crush the pods by hands if no tool is available, or cut them with a knife. SWIM has used both these methods with good results.

However, SWIM uses a grater most of the times and it works wonderful. SWIM has some advice too, as it is easy to mess things up. First, he cuts off the top of the pod to pour the seeds out (they are not necessary and can be used for planting, in case one has the desire). Then he starts grating the pod while holding it perfectly perpendicular to the surface of the grater - not otherwise. This SWIM has found out to be the best way to make sure large pieces of the pod do not break off, as these are almost impossible to grate later on. If you do it this way, the pod will be turned into an almost perfectly fine powder. There will be some larger chunks too but that is not an issue.

An important point: use the side which is used for grating stuff into small strips, rather than crumbs. For dried pods the crumb side actually gives you worse results.

Reputation Comments on this post:

useful tips! answers the question (which I also found amusing)