I love Kava Got my block of dry, ground roots!

[kavakarma]

Checkthis out! Ceremonial kava from Kava Depot. Comes as a block, smells potent. Arms get a little workout after holding this 1000gram knot of roots for a while. I cut the package open, graded each side of the block with a metal fork, and repackaged the kava into smaller, resealable containers. I'm off to go try it now. I'll leave this here so I may share a photo of the roots, cloth, and the final beverage.

 

[The Kap'n]

At an almost 10% KL content and chemotype of 243 that should be an excellent kava you've got there.

 

[kavakarma]

Here's my exploring the roots! I forgot to take a picture of my strainer. It's washed and hanging now. I enjoyed tasting this kava as well. I drank some right out the ol saucepan.

this kava has a pretty strong flavor for me. It's earthy, rich, tasted like pine for a fleeting moment, moved on to bitter lime, then I remembered I ate lime chili last night. Still tasting the kava and struggling to describe the flavor, as if words to describe it are escaping.




Malok

 

[kavakarma]

Feeling brave. I'm back, this time with a liter of 1:10 root to water brew. That's right, one hundred grams of this fine kava to a liter cold water. Nobody said I have to drink it all. I don't even think I'll drink it all tonight. Leftovers don't scare me, what scares me is the thought of drinking a high powered kava like this too quickly or without any water. I have tried a small shell, not too bad.

I noticed you gave me a couple formulas in your chart. At first I didn't pay much attention because in the back of my mind I am thinking, "Tests for KL don't necessarily represent what I'm going to be drinking". Then I remembered you exploring Kavain to Dihydrokavain ratios as well as Methysticin ratios in a Wednesday night circle. Do I really know why a higher amount of DHK (edit: or K to DHM, even more mystifying a ratio to me.) is considered or can be considered desireable compared to a higher kavain content? No, and I would like to learn. Plus that final one. Kavain (2.46) divided by ((9.4%overall KL - 2.46=6.94)) * 100
I get 35.4467 for this also. What does this number mean?

 

[The Kap'n]

Feeling brave. I'm back, this time with a liter of 1:10 root to water brew. That's right, one hundred grams of this fine kava to a liter cold water. Nobody said I have to drink it all. I don't even think I'll drink it all tonight. Leftovers don't scare me, what scares me is the thought of drinking a high powered kava like this too quickly or without any water. I have tried a small shell, not too bad.

I noticed you gave me a couple formulas in your chart. At first I didn't pay much attention because in the back of my mind I am thinking, "Tests for KL don't necessarily represent what I'm going to be drinking". Then I remembered you exploring Kavain to Dihydrokavain ratios as well as Methysticin ratios in a Wednesday night circle. Do I really know why a higher amount of DHK (edit: or K to DHM, even more mystifying a ratio to me.) is considered or can be considered desireable compared to a higher kavain content? No, and I would like to learn. Plus that final one. Kavain (2.46) divided by ((9.4%overall KL - 2.46=6.94)) * 100
I get 35.4467 for this also. What does this number mean?

It looks like Kavain and DHK are the most sought after kavalactones in terms of how chemotypes have evolved over the time that humans have cultivated Piper methysticum. Generally when you have high kavain levels DHK will be right there beside it other than in a number of Fijian cultivars where Methysticin takes precedence over DHK.

That K/( KL-K)*100 number indicates the nobility of said roots in a roundabout way. It's what you can use if you don't know the flavokavain amounts, and need to ascertain nobility. The higher the better (>25 = noble in most cases).

 

[kavakarma]

Ahh, higher is preferred. How about yangonin? It is not often I see a test with over 1% yangonin.