I am surprised that
@verticity doesn't care about taste/smell etc. When I started my kava adventure I assumed that every kava tasted the same (i.e. like crap) and just focused on the effects. But with time I started appreciating the importance of flavour. It's not like I drink kava for its taste or sip it slowly, but I just know that some kavas are so mild/sweet or a bit nutty that I can drink them without getting my stomach and face twisted.
When we were looking for our Tongan kava I got around 15 samples of kava from the same village but grown and processed by different farmers. Before sending samples to Garry we did our own organoleptic tests. There were a few kavas that we didn't even touch simply because they had a very unpleasant smell. One kava looked dirty so we didn't touch it either. The sample that we sent to Garry was actually the mildest tasting, easiest to drink one. It felt a bit stronger than the other ones, but its key advantage was how smooth tasting it was. We later found out that the difference wasn't due to cultivar, but the fact that most farmers didn't clean or dry their kava properly.