While you're at it, feel free to also give us your sales and profit margin figures over the past 3yrs.
Seriously thought, I'm sure some of them have done extensive taste and potency testing and would consider their ratios a trade secret.
@Kava Time (and his family) have been processing kava for Fijian vendors for decades... perhaps he'd be willing to tell us not his own secret recipe, but what the most commonly requested ratio is in Fiji.
I would say that in Fiji most people prefer pure roots (waka). 99% of our customers who come to get their personal consumption kava processed bring pure waka. But for most markets vendors whom we process the kava for, they mix root to stump at a ratio of 70:30 which is sold as their premium waka powder. The only reason they do this is to bring the cost down because in Fiji, there is a significant price difference between the stumps and the roots. The serious kava consumers who drink daily tend to buy whole roots and get their waka processed or hand pound themselves rather than getting directly powdered form from the market. Or they buy from a very trusted vendor. The powder sold in market is usually for resale, weddings, funerals, celebrations, gatherings etc. Usually the cheaper the kava is, the more sh*t it will contain like peelings, stalks, flour, sugar etc.
Interestingly for Vanuatu, the price of the stump and roots is the same. And for what i have seen in the past when vanuatu kava was pretty popular in Fiji, vendors used to process the stumps only. No one seemed to like the roots because it was just too peppery in taste. Some people complained that after drinking the roots their eyes got burning sensations.
As for our Kava Time products we don't mix the roots to stumps. You get pure roots when buying the premium waka and pure stumps/basal roots when buying the lawenas. We leave it to you to mix and match to your preference since the waka's are pretty potent. Its a great way to keep cost down and get two sets of kava for daytime and evening consumption. I have noticed very few customers doing so though.
