I was traveling in India and Nepal about a year ago, and brought back a small bag of whole betel nuts that my sitar teacher in Banares got for me. I had chewed 'bitter paan' or Paan Masala, I think, a few times with my friends I had made in India. There's a few kinds of Paan (betel nut preparations) in India: Sweet Paan was used as a digestif in desserts and what not, some other sort, and bitter paan, masala.
The basic preps that I saw of bitter paan were basically lime paste, 1-2 green cardamom pods, a few cumin seeds, something that looked like modified orange marmalade, a small amount of tobacco, of course a few little chunks of crushed betel nut, all wrapped up into a little quid using a fresh betel leaf. There were of course variations on this mixture, as everyone has their own preference in such things, right?
I took a single betel nut, wrapped it up in a piece of paper and shattered it with a hammer, then more or less powdered it in my coffee grinder. The resulting rust colored powder was put into a shot glass along with the following:
1/3 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp orange marmalade
contents of 6 peeled green cardamom pods
two pinches cumin seeds
a dash of black pepper
This concoction was then stirred thoroughly, and about 1/6 of it was wadded up in some tea bag paper. I have been sucking on it for about 15 minutes now, have spit bloody red-colored stuff a couple of times now (don't want to swallow this crap!) and am feeling a nice little buzz similar to caffeine, but a little more stupifying ;-)
I think I'll walk somewhere to get food now, dunno about driving.
