Kojo Douglas
The Kavasseur
If you make it too strong, you hurt yourself. Space it out more, that's the key.
WHY DOES KAVA TASTE SOOO DISGUSTING!
- Thread starter foxycleo
- Start date
Sam Handwich
Kava Enthusiast
Agreed, Nene is about as light on flavor as it gets. It seems that there is a correlation between the color of the root and the strength of the flavor, the lighter the color the better.
Squanch72
Kava Vendor
I call this the pepper factor. The darker the root the more it tastes like I dumped pepper in my drink. I use Welch's orange pineapple cocktail juice instead of water 95% of the time to prep kava. If it is plenty chilled I find that I am starting to like the pepper tastes mixing with the orange pineapple juice. Sort of reminds me watching my uncle dump pepper in his tomato juice when I was a kid.
verticity
I'm interested in things
I said "the taste has been described as 'monkey butt' ", but not by myself. I haven't tasted monkey butt.
My personal point of reference is 'goat balls'.
Kojo Douglas
The Kavasseur
I find it amusing when these discussions come up. Yes, there are some Kavas that taste horrible. Chief's Jungle and a handful of PNG Kavas I've had bring grass cuttings to mind. But a good mellow Tongan Kava is delicious - even straight with water-only. If you don't like the taste, or you get a gag effect, just add some water to the shell before you take it down.
verticity
I'm interested in things
I think you are a bit of an outlier in that respect....
Squanch72
Kava Vendor
Tongan or Lawena has very little flinch factor for me. And anything else I usually grab for the Welch's orange pineapple. But still saying that, if I smell someone watering their roots as work I say Nom and my mouth starts to water and sends me to daydreaming about my next shell of any kava.
Thanks, @verticity . There's actually quite an interesting explanation why it's so easy to drink and mild-tasting. On the one hand it's just a Tongan cultivar and they are all known for being mild tasting ("the milk of the Pacific), which I find quite intriguing as their chemotypes do not necessarily reflect uber headiness or mildness (Lebot's samples tested as 246531, so in theory not the headiest of chemotypes, but they certainly feel "clean" and mentally stimulating). On the other hand though, my quest for this kava taught me a lot about the importance of proper cleaning and processing. I got 10-15 samples of the same cultivar from the same area, but grown and processed by different farmers. The differences were massive. Most seemed good, but some of the samples smelled really earthy, others seemed a bit "stale", etc. The "mighty tongan" was certainly the best. When my friend talked to the locals, they all said that the farmer who grows is fanatical about cleaning it properly (he cleans even the tiniest bits of skin and/or dirt with a tiny knife, it takes ages, but apparently he likes doing it - he just sits down, listens to some music and cleans his kava manually for hours and hours) and only harvesting properly mature and nicely developed plants. Apparently few other people bother to do that. I imagine that even fewer people bother to be as meticulous as he is when they supply their kava in bulk to bigger wholesalers.
Obviously some cultivars are simply very bitter, regardless of how well their growers clean them, but it's also worth noting that much of the kava coming from many different farms will never be 100% peeled and clean as there is little incentive for being so meticulous when one gets paid a few $ per kg regardless of cleanliness. In fact, there is a strong incentive for keeping the roots dirty as this can increase the weight.
Sam Handwich
Kava Enthusiast
Interesting, I have often wondered if the really muddy tasting ones taste this way because of improper cleaning of the roots, ie: dirt tastes like dirt.
Yep, this could be a big factor.. One of the samples I got actually had small soil particles and (not surprisingly) had a very "earthy" smell.
verticity
I'm interested in things
Hmm, so should we actually be rinsing our kava, like rinsing rice? Would that even work to separate the dirt out? Or would you just lose kava with the dirt?
Not sure. In any case not peeling it properly could be a bigger factor than not washing all the mud away: http://kavaforums.com/forum/threads...efore-drying-and-processing.9129/#post-108386
It is usually dried in the sun, I doubt there are any parasites or anything to worry about in it. If in doubt stick to the 14 vendors on the main page and you will be just fine
EDIT: Or you can boil it, I have tried that once or twice, but it changes the kavas chemotype and it is even more gross to drink it.
I could be talking out of my ass, Chris from @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava is an expert in this area, I am sure he can address this best.
Quite a few little buggers survive even when they are dry, some worms at least, but I can't recall witch one of the top of my head. It does seem like kava has been used to actually kill worms tho, so it might cancel it out. The stuff I got now is micro tho, so that should be far less risk (if there even is a noticeable one to begin with). Boiling might end up giving me more a peace of mind, but it is more of a hassle if I use kava regularly.It is usually dried in the sun, I doubt there are any parasites or anything to worry about in it. If in doubt stick to the 14 vendors on the main page and you will be just fine
EDIT: Or you can boil it, I have tried that once or twice, but it changes the kavas chemotype and it is even more gross to drink it.
I probably will, when I'v googled enough to have clear questions
verticity
I'm interested in things
When you ingest kava orally, your stomach acid will kill all those little buggers. That's why it's not a good idea to ingest it...um...non-orally.
According to @kasa_balavu manure is not used for fertilizer growing kava, so you don't need to worry about worms/parasites (or at least the kind of worms that are human parasites):
http://kavaforums.com/forum/threads/root-of-happiness-kava-tincture.2772/page-2#post-79666
So, I really don't think there is anything to worry about, except the taste.
Last edited:
Krunkie McKrunkface
Kava Connoisseur
My experience was that for the first 6 or 7 months I disliked the taste of kava, and usually added coconut milk to make it more palatable. But then suddenly overnight I liked the taste and I find that really enhanced my enjoyment of the whole kava experience. There are some kavas that are downright delicious and I really enjoy. There are some that still taste kinda nasty but they are good kavas so I drink them anyway. I have found that blending for flavour makes a big difference. Some kavas I do not terribly enjoy on their own but mixed with something sweeter it goes down much better. I especially find piney kavas can be toned down with a sweet lawena. Some piney kavas are really good, if you can just get over that flavour hump, and blending is one good way, I've found.