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I'm not sure if this is even of any real use...and it's not really science since I didn't use perfect identical volumes and exact lighting/angle/distance for each photo. It's also been so long I forgot what the samples were...I'm pretty sure it was (a)Solomon kava, (b)Tongan kava, (c)Starwest...

· TEMO · (Solomon Islands) Dry powder aroma: Pungent, herbal, sweet and piney. A distinctly Vanuatuan kind of scent. Beverage aroma: Ground spices. The scent of a spice market or a nature/herb store. Appearance: Slightly yellowish, medium/light tan with oily swirls. Flavor: Peppery and...

BIR KAR Over the last few months I was able to try several cultivars from the island of Santo that have become available. These are Palasa, 'Short Hand' Melomelo, Puariki and Bir Kar, which I'm reviewing here. The first thing to note is that since these samples all came from The Kava Society...

I'll try keep this review short, as my recent review of The Kava Society's Borogoru actually serves as suitable jumping off point for understanding this kava. To put it simply, this Melo Melo could be considered a slightly lighter and even gentler twin to the Borogoru kava. Take any detail in my...

B O R O G O R U (A classic sedating Borogoru, but distinctly clean and highly drinkable) Alright, this is another great and thoroughly processed kava from The Kava Society NZ. Their modus operandi has been to source properly matured cultivars directly from farmers in Vanuatu and have them...

Pretty interesting documentary about the kava business and the journey your takes through Vanuatu. Mostly not in English. Peter Colmar pops up around 25;00 and 44;00

pacificrootskava.com Well it looks like a new era is upon us. Shelf-stable fresh Vanuatu kava has finally been made available for everyone to try! This has been a long time request from Kava Forums users and a curiosity to most kava-heads that haven't yet made their pilgrimage to Vanuatu. Kalm...

The experiment is temporarily over, all of my remaining kava plants have succumbed to what is hopefully my last lesson in figuring out how to keep kava alive in SoCal. Surprisingly, it was not the winter but rather the heat that took even my largest (still small), healthiest and hardiest plant...

:bookworm: I primarily use my laptop for the Kava Forums, especially for typing responses and reviews. I'll typically only use the smart phone for quick check-ins while I'm out.

KELAI The Kelai cultivar comes from the island of Epi, a bit north of Vanuatu's main island, Efate. Just as every other island has 2 or 3 favored cultivars for daily drinking, Epi has Kelai. It's very rare for this cultivar to be found online, in fact, I'm not sure if it ever has been...at...

PALARASUL I recently got to try some special single cultivar batches of kava from the island of Santo. Santo's most popular daily kava is Palarasul and we don't see it very often on the international market. In addition to the rareness of the kava, it is also being produced in small batches...

F I J I F R E S H - W A K A For starters, I'll say I've purchased this kava twice now and had a slightly different experience in both cases. I preferred the original batch over the second batch, so the majority of this review is more so in reference to my 1st bag. Current readers of the...

Here's something that might be of minor interest to some. I came across this quote in an Australian paper from the '90s...it appears to acknowledge the spread, consumption and undesirability of Piper Auritum through the pacific islands. At the time, apparently, it was just considered to be a...

Lately it's been increasingly hard for me to achieve satisfactory positive effects from kava powder, especially effects that aren't bogged down or masked by the negative effects I experience. It's gotten to the point where I think I'm often experiencing more side-effects and discomfort than I am...

They all look quite yellow except for the Starwest kava, of course. 1) Starwest Botanicals - I use this as my tudei standard to compare to. As blatant as it's coloring is, it's counter-intuitively a light, gentle, weak kava with no tudei effects. 2) BKH Melo Melo - Quite potent by today's...

We've had some 'kava machine' threads in the past, if anyone could make it a reality, it seems like Matt would be the guy. I think a personal-sized machine, that could make a 1 or 2 person batch, would be around 1L or 1.5 Liter. If the machine could make a batch sufficiently strong, that could...

MELOMELO Melomelo is a popular kava in Vanuatu, that used to be more available online in the past. It's largely grown on the island of Ambae and is one of the two known cultivars exported to and grown in Solomon Islands. This Melomelo has a great zesty, Vanuatuan peppery scent, with a hint of...

Just got word from one of my Indo-Fijian California kava sources that eBay has banned kava. "Dear Valued Customer, Fiji Vanua Kava thanks and appreciates you as a customer. Unfortunately EBAY has made the decision on banning all Kava sales from all vendors. For this reason, you will not be...

In some of Dr. Lebot's older research, they surveyed the islands to estimate the number of kava plants grown and which cultivars were most planted. The biggest kava growing regions were Pentecost & Tanna, although Tongoa produces a huge amount considering it's small size. Here are the results:

The picture without the white paper is actually more representative of how the results appear. The acetone test isn't perfect, but it can give you a pretty good idea what you're working with, when you have a tudei & noble standard to test against. Apart from the Starwest tudei, they all appear...