Yeah, I'm pretty sure that "enjoying" the taste of kava is something that has to be taken in context. Nobody's trying to make kava flavored ice cream or kava flavored sports drinks, or kava flavored soda or 'artificial kava flavoring.' I enjoy aspects of the flavor (but more specifically, I enjoy the smell of the dry root) of some kavas; but it is a matter of context. If kava had no effects, I would not drink it. Let's be honest, in spite of what is said by some people, if kava had no effects and was even cheap, people would not drink it. Milk is the only thick colloidal suspension that I really wanna drink. I don't even like drinking protein powder mixes. For me, the taste of kava is more like smelling plants and flowers. Some plants and flowers have spicy, fruity, or sweet smells that are pleasant, some have smells that are not pleasant or neutral. No kava "tastes" good. That's why I oscillate between calming myself and letting myself actually breath while drinking, and just holding my nose. There are some pleasant smells in some kavas which I know my brain has yoked to the bad taste. Calming down and breathing is my way of saying, "shut up brain, this isn't poison; there are even pleasant smells mixed in." But I pretty much never do that with kava supreme, because that is my least favorite kava flavor ever (and the fact that I am still willing to buy it shows that it is very high quality too).
Taken in context: there are kavas that I do really like the smell of (but even some of these make me queasy). BKH Akau was pretty mild/"pleasant." Kava Time's Kadavu mixed a little weaker (most people don't consider this mild, but it works for me weaker). Kavafied's Tonga is very floral (but for some reason makes me queasy for some other reason than smell, maybe actual taste independent of smell). I like Kava Bati (but its consistency can make me queasy, I think b/c of the lawena mixed in making it thick). Squanch tasted bad to me but for weird reasons. I kinda think I might've gotten a bad batch b/c the tastes I didn't like were ones that my brain had flagged as non-kava tastes. Kava Vinaka's lawena ended up grossing me out for the total opposite reason: it tasted TOO neutral and non-bitter (and was thick and starchy/slimy). My brain wanted to flag it as vanilla pudding or something, then kept getting freaked out by how it actually didn't taste good enough. I think you have to just experiment. Taste is the biggest component of queasiness, but I do think the kind/cultivar and the consistency are also in play. For example, in my mind, the odor of KF's Tonga shouldn't have made me as queasy as it did (which wasn't too bad, but more than I expected for something that actually smelled good). Ones with a lot of lawena tend to seem slimy if I mix them strong and that makes me queasier too (Squanch waka also came out a bit slimy). etc.
