@Kava Time, good luck with your growing efforts. I see you have direct contact with your Kava Farmer to insure the middleman doesn't mess with it. I also see that your Kava has been tested and is Noble as the world is round. Good job. I know its a pipe dream, but if you could grow and sell it "farm to market", you wouldn't have to fret so much about anyone messing with the nobility of the kava that you order. But we appreciate your "fretting".
Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your growing adventures.
We don't buy from middleman for a bunch of reasons
1 is because middleman dont care about the quality of the kava being sent. They just want to make a profit asap so will send you anything from wet molding mildew kava to extremely muddy ones.
2 is that the middlemen always mix kava from different regions so you don't always know what you are getting. The most popular kava in Nadi comes from Savusavu. Middleman always mix or send you taveuni kava labeled as savusavu (Taveuni usually produces a dark beverage which is deemed dirty by the fijians of indian descent kava drinkers)
3 is that they will send you anything between the range of 1yr to 4 yr old kavas. Its never consistent.
Its gotten even worse now since supply has lowered and demand has increased.
Working with farmers directly is much better because by offering better prices you can get exactly the type and quality of kava you need. Our farmers are passionate about what they grow and sell and take into consideration of our needs. The only problem though, which is a general problem with kava is that it almost always comes dirty. Pressure washing in the islands is impossible because of limited power/water supply. So we need to re-wash the kava before processing. To give you an idea of how much dirt comes out from normal roots, take a look at pic below. This is after washing a few kilos of waka
Its not just this little patch. Majority of the dirt has been drained out. Hand washing kava is quite hard when the soil is wet and stuck onto the roots. Pressure washing would be good but when power supply is only available from 7pm to 10pm in the islands, things get difficult.
Nobility of fijian kava is unquestionable. We dont have tudei kava here. The main problem with fiji kava exports is when fijian kava is mixed with imported vanuatu/png kava or when aerial parts or other fillers are mixed into kava to lower costs. We process whole dried kava roots so aerial parts or imported kava adulteration is not possible.
The problem with buying kava powder from fiji which is a very big risk for importers is that its impossible to tell what you are getting. I have seen people mix flour, sugar, kava stalk, peelings into the kava they export without the buyer getting a hint of it. I have also seen cockroaches, dead mice and all sorts of nasty stuff in bags of kava which get processed without a second glance. Exporters don't care about what they are sending as long as it seems decent enough and there is a profit to be made. Since we export and retail our own kava, our reputation is on the line with our customers which is why so much quality check and precautions are taken. The last thing we want is a customer getting food poisoned because of consuming a dried dead powdered mice in a batch of kava.
