Do people actually like Tudei though? I remember one of our members (Violet?) got a kava that they didn't realize was Tudei and it did nothing but make her feel awful. Even back before people could accurately test for chemotypes Tudei was never considered a drinking kava because it made you feel like crap. The whole popularity in the states more than likely got started because uninformed kava drinkers were duped by shady growers into buying that fast growing, cheap to produce kava. It's one thing to like a stronger kava that begins with 24xxx, that could be considered noble, but most Tudeis start with DHK/DHM and kavain, the feel good kavalactone, is somewhere way down the line. The first two numbers of a chemotype are the majority of the lactones, others are trace.
While Judd is insistent on its nobility despite it failing to pass every accepted test (acetone, chemotype etc.), Koniak, a cultivar that begins with 25, has never given me a pleasant effect, just made me and uncomfortable kind of tired.
I can't speak for all people, do I like like tudei? Generally, no, I prefer noble kavas, last year when I joined KF, everything I read, prior to actually consuming kava lead me to believe that I should stay away from Tudei at all costs based on the obvious implication that tudei is looked as sub-par kava. That's exactly what I did, I steered clear of tudei, went straight to GHK, bought some instant Moi and went from there.
Since then, I have tried kava from just about every vendor from this website, including, CK, BKH, KWK, Squanch, Kavafied & luna Kava most recently. Now while most of these experiences have been wonderful, I did find some kavas among these vendors that in my opinion, didn't fit the "Noble" quality though stated otherwise. The point is not to single any vendor out, but rather I consumed these kavas that were apparently a mix of tudei and in some cases actually tudei. I did not realize this until after the fact.
I have experienced the kava "hangover" from both tudei (more noticeable) and from noble kavas, off course amount of consumption has a lot to do with it. Assuming that I drank the same amount from both noble vs tudei (which I did, as an experiment) I found both types gave me an equally unpleasant feeling the next day.
From these personal experiments, I deduced that generally speaking, I definitely prefer noble kavas, the quality is far superior. But I also came to the conclusion that tudei kava is not the "big bad monster" I once thought it was. Up until recently, I still had some tudei around. Will I buy tudei kava going forward? Maybe, realistically, I will stick to the kavas that gave me the best effects, because at the end of the day that's the point.
I simply believe people should be given the choice and my big "IF"....If it is labelled accordingly.