Kojo Douglas
The Kavasseur
If you make it too strong, you hurt yourself. Space it out more, that's the key.
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.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.
I said "the taste has been described as 'monkey butt' ", but not by myself. I haven't tasted monkey butt.I find it mildly alarming that someone has had a point of reference there...
I think you are a bit of an outlier in that respect.......a good mellow Tongan Kava is delicious - even straight with water-only. ...
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.On the other hand, @Henry 's "Mighty Tongan" was one of the mildest kavas I have ever tasted. (Mild in taste, very potent in effects)
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.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.
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?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.
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-108386Hmm, 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?
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 fineIf it is soil left in the kava, how big is the risk for parasites, germs and so on? I doubt my immune system has a clue what to do about anything from Fiji.
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 questionsI 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.
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.If it is soil left in the kava, how big is the risk for parasites, germs and so on? I doubt my immune system has a clue what to do about anything from Fiji.