Any possibility of adulterated kava?

[Ed!]

Adil from Paradise Kava is a regular contributor here. He'll probably be responding himself, but I can assure you he really cares about the future of kava and wouldn't risk that with an adulterated product.



I was worried at first, buying online from people whose websites don't exactly inspire trust sometimes, but there are definitely good guys that are well established. The folks here can tell you with confidence who the good guys are. You can buy with confidence from Paradise Kava.

 

[The Kap'n]

The vendors you will find here rely solely on the quality of their products and have hoards of happy customers to prove it. Paradise kava extract I can vouch for. Nakamal at home and Bula Kava House as well. Although I've never taken a sample to an HPLC lab I trust their products are of utmost quality. I can say if they added adulterants to their products wouldn't they effectively corner themselves out of a job? My philosophy is if they'll talk to you and let you see their face then they are straight shooters. Kona Kava, while I've not heard of any toxic reports I do know they never show who they are so I refuse to buy from them. Kava was shot down drastically in the past. A vendor willing to sell anything but top quality is willing to be unemployed. Search around the forums for our experiences with vendors and products and welcome!

 

[Prince Philip]

I don't want to trash Gaia Herbs.



I do want to point out that alcohol or solvent based kavalactone extraction is not as healthy/safe as supercritical extraction. If you want extracts, go with Paradise or Ozia. Anything else is trading your health for the profit of another.



Sent from my DROID4 using Yuku app

 

[kl.new2kava]

Independant vendors like paradise or bula rely purely on the quality of their kava and customer service skills to ensure repeat business. All of the vendors I use imports their kava direct from small growers in the South Pacific or grows it themselves. Paradise offers several kavas both dry and fresh that they grow themselves.



Even the large vitamin chains will use pure kava as it is sold as a supplement and the FDA will jump all over them for adding mystery ingredients. The fact that kava is sold as a supplement and is under the authority of the FDA holds distributers to higher standards. The large chains are just more likely to use sub par kavas or extraction methods that are frowned upon by the kava community.



Paradise's extract is one of the most relaxing and esay ways to use kava rivaled only by the kava candies, they both contain only flavorings and such and state what the other contents are. all of the vendors I use have a nutrition facts panel which states the contents on it as 100% ground kava root, fudging that would bring down the full wrath of the FDA and open up the door to lawsuits, so I think it's safe to say their legit. Nakamalathome imports their roots whole and grinds them in small batches to ensure freshness and quality another great idea that ensures quality.



Basically kava is one of the safest things out there. Don't buy into the media fear mongering and give it whirl....

 

[krunkedout]

Kava is perfectly safe and I can assure you that all the vendors talked about on here are legitimate companies. They are not big huge companies, they are small businesses really. And I can almost be certain that they have better kava products that Gaia herbs does. So don't put your trust in the big guys, put your trust in the guys on here who actually care about the health and happiness of their customers.

 

[Ed!]

I think your fears will be totally abated if you stick around a while and read some of the past threads. Seeing first-hand how passionate vendors like Adil, Judd, and Steve are about kava really makes it obvious that they're not slapping stuff together for a quick nickel.

 

[kl.cuvtixo]

Interestingly, neither the Meet Your Herbs ID page, nor the Certificate of Compliance, list where the kava is from, which strain(s) they use and if it is grown with or without pesticides or herbicides. The Certificate of Compliance is signed only by the lab manager and two lab techs; in other words, employees of Gaia Herbs. There are also a surprising number of N/As on the testing results, and the results from heavy metal tests are "Passed," not actual measurements.

I've never tried Gaia Herbs product and don't have anything to say about the subjective qualities, but I call B.S. on their "certificate." It does not provide any level of accountability at all, because there is no involvement with any unbiased third parties.

The article "Lethal Mix of Kava" is about locally made yaqona purposely mixed with datura in Fiji, and doesn't tell of any actual deaths. It's just a catchy headline that doesn't really fit the article.

So far I have more reason to doubt the quality and safety of Gaia Herbs, which puts up misleading information on their website, rather than that of Paradise, or in fact, any of the other small kava vendors.

 

[uuku pi]

I think your fears will be totally abated if you stick around a while and read some of the past threads. Seeing first-hand how passionate vendors like Adil, Judd, and Steve are about kava really makes it obvious that they're not slapping stuff together for a quick nickel.

I was afraid at first to buy on line but these people are good.  My experience is mainly with Adil at Paradise but I just ordered some from Judd at Bula House. Good luck

 

[Paradise Kava]

Datura is a TOTALLY unique substance from what I gather (kava does not make one hallucinate)

....What more can I add after reading all of the above, except, that a small company like ours is ideally moving towards a kava world where we get to know each other better and better, first thru forums, and later, perhaps thru Kava Get Togethers which is our dream.

Customers are more like friends, and we're trying to turn Kava's image around for the better.

Also, we do not post our COA (Certificate of analysis) but certainly have one for the extracts. Purity must be guaranteed especially with extracts.

Thanks for the vote of confidence fellow kava heads.
Adil Ghiasi

 

[krunkedout]

Datura is a TOTALLY unique substance from what I gather (kava does not make one hallucinate)

....What more can I add after reading all of the above, except, that a small company like ours is ideally moving towards a kava world where we get to know each other better and better, first thru forums, and later, perhaps thru Kava Get Togethers which is our dream.

Customers are more like friends, and we're trying to turn Kava's image around for the better.

Also, we do not post our COA (Certificate of analysis) but certainly have one for the extracts. Purity must be guaranteed especially with extracts.

Thanks for the vote of confidence fellow kava heads.
Adil Ghiasi




 

kava get togethers would be awesome! There is nothing better than drinking kava with a good buddy

 

[Paradise Kava]

Absolutely, Krunkedout!

 

[uuku pi]

I saw that too(Hilo Farmer's Market) So sorry I did not go there all the times I went to Hawaii.

 

[Paradise Kava]

Hey, Nice picture

Love that market and we've been there for years now. It's really about community, meeting new people, talking to people about kava, having them try all the extracts, etc.



We used to offer Kava by the cup a couple of years ago, and let me tell you that it was impossible to get people to move away from the table, lol~

They'd just hang out, some of them for hours, kicking back and relaxing with us.

 
Ifyou ever come to the Hilo Market, come say hello and have some kava with us!

 

[Steve]

For sure   It is great to see the whole community work together whether it be vendors or customers.  There is so much knowledge in different areas related to kava  on this forum and it is always really nice getting feedback to see how we can improve our products and the industry in general.

 

[Prince Philip]

Deleted User,



FYI, the FDA is checking Paradise's Fijian for purity and safety.

 

[Paradise Kava]

It's more then "checking". It's a small fortune's worth of testing of all types.
Since our customs broker released the kava to us, it's a bigger mess than normal since we're acting on behalf of the lab, self collecting and documenting samples, taking pictures, and following a fairly tight protocol to be in compliance with the FDA's requirements.

Hope that give you some peace of mind

 

[Prince Philip]

Normally, I'm an authoritarian who insists upon regulation, and I try to keep my own pocketbook out of it, even though I know this "small fortune" worth of testing will increase the price passed onto the end-user. However, I have been a member of the Life Extension Foundation for quite a while, and have a supplement seller's opinion of the FDA because of it. Still, if we're going to be importing food and drugs, it's good to have a food and drug administration to ensure no hijinks.



My hope is that they do everything necessary, but do not engage in random harassment.