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Kava Prices Discussion

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
To some extent you are right @Krunkie McKrunkface. I have kavas I use that are mild and taste less like mud that I don’t mind tossing into my morning cold brew coffee for that extra kick. But about once or twice a month I want to hit it HARD! I want to either become one with the couch or fly with the birds. I haven’t flown with the birds since flying the Fijian air. I think the "euphoric" kavas are what most ppl say when they say "strong". Its been easy to find a good heavy kava, but very hard to find a good heady one lately. Just ordered a pound of kwk tongan (Pouni Ono)
that was suggested by @ThePiper in the other thread...
I'm drinking a triple ball of Pouni Ono as I write this. I would call it fairly strong, not very strong. It won't make you one with the couch. OTOH, it tastes fantastic and feels really nice. It's a clean, high-class kava, something special to serve to friends and family at the holidays, and I intend to do just that with it.
 

avahZ

YAHWEH Shalom
I'm drinking a triple ball of Pouni Ono as I write this. I would call it fairly strong, not very strong. It won't make you one with the couch. OTOH, it tastes fantastic and feels really nice. It's a clean, high-class kava, something special to serve to friends and family at the holidays, and I intend to do just that with it.
Yea my brother is coming in from Montana, havnt seen him in years, ordered that one for him to try. Don’t wont to over do it...
 

The Pizzabaker

Kava Curious
Henry
The cheapest beer cost 0,29€ for 0,5 Liter and for vinnegar wine you pay less than for a bottel of water.
We are a land of alkoholics:)
They call it german tradition but all other drugs are evil;-)

And had the kava from bestfijinkava really over 25% kavalactone?
For this price , it sounds too good.
 

Ben Thomas

Kava Enthusiast
To be honest I love kava, am very new to it, make plenty of money but am shocked at how expensive this stuff is. I understand why it’s just disturbing to know what I’m willing to pay for it haha
 
I have no idea what the prices will be in 2020 or 2025. There are so many things that can change. However, I am mildly optimistic and base this optimism on the fact that there's a lot of potential for increasing the supply of kava within the next 3-5 years. For a start, across the Pacific, despite the current boom, people still grow less kava than 10 years ago. At least that's what the Tongan ministry of agriculture and people in Samoa noted last year. Furthermore, over the last year or two lots of people started planting more kava that will hit the markets in 2018-2019. Additionally, lots of big producers that currently sell to large, pharma wholesalers might decide to start selling kava to recreational users. I will give you one example. 3 weeks ago I met up with a guy who grows kava (among many other things) in Samoa. His people currently sell kava for a low price to a German pharmaceutical company (they sell 1000-1500 kgs per month apparently). He's read about the high prices of kava and they are wondering if they should perhaps start selling kava to Western drinkers and whether they should actually plant more kava instead of planting more of their other crops. It's pretty good kava (no chloro, pretty nice effects) and apparently many other people in Samoa and Tongan are in a similar position (currently sell to the Germans, but might decide to sell it to the recreational market).

We also need to remember that one of the reasons why kava has become more expensive is that most big buyers have become more careful and demanding when it comes to quality. This is why the German companies buy their stuff in Tongan and Samoa (no risk of tudei). This is why the prices have not increased by as much in NZ as they have elsewhere. Yes, they have grown quite substantially, BUT in many cases vendors aiming at the diaspora markets have preferred to decrease the quality of their kava instead of increasing prices. As noted by Judd, it's almost impossible to find a Tongan exporter who wouldn't be mixing stems and peelings with their kava these days. Even some of the bigger, seemingly more serious exporters do this shit and are not even hiding this, e.g. see:

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Henry with regards to your post/reply, i think its unfair to paint a picture of us that is not entirely true.

for years Tongan people have been drinking kava this way, as to what i have personally seen first hand in Tonga and drinking in many many Tongan kava clubs/fai kavas and also talking with many other farmers. It is due to the lack of education in Tonga that kava should not be prepared this way. we are slowly learning but still ages behind the rest of the kava world.
We pride ourselves in our kava we produce that it's of quality and at a reasonable price. I can honestly say our Tongan Kava is amongst the highest quality out there and at an affordable price.

With more knowledge and understanding, Tongan kava can be up there amongst the greats!


#EducationIsKey!
 
If anything it looks to me like Judd is somewhat understating the case. The price spikes in Fiji and Vanuatu and especially Tonga are astronomical as domestic consumption is going up at the same time as export demand and then there's weather crises damaging crops. Proportionally, very little of the price spike has shown up in US prices. The vendors are eating a lot of that spike, I would guess to keep customers and volume and cash flow going, in hopes of riding this out or buying time to readjust consumer expectations. It's hard for consumers to wrap their heads around something like this.

Of course, customers can somewhat offset this by more efficiently getting the most out of the kava they buy. I shudder to think of the good root I've wasted and thrown out as I was learning how to use it more efficiently.
How do you get the most out of your root? I've been drinking kava for a while now, but would love to hear your tips for getting the most out of your root.
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
How do you get the most out of your root? I've been drinking kava for a while now, but would love to hear your tips for getting the most out of your root.
All medium grind I use, and fresh kava, goes through at least 6 washes before I compost it. I've posted videos here on the techniques I use.
 
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