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Dua Na Bilo Vanuatu

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skip L

Kava Curious
Recently DnB has put this back up on amazon. Been drinking it for a few days now, and at first it started out fine. But now I seem suspect about it for some reason....anyone else buy this recently?
 

skip L

Kava Curious
Well it was just darker than I remember...maybe just my memory. But i think it gave me early stages of dermo as well, which i usually never have a problem with. I think it all may be in my head as far as the quality is concerned though.

-skip
 

Travis

Kava Enthusiast
I had completely forgot that they had a Vanuatu and got some not remembering if I had it before.
Tried some mixed with their Fijian and I remember that i did have it and why I never bought it again. It is probably the worst tasting kava I've had. Most kavas don't taste bad to me anymore, just this one. Effects are OK though and its one of the cheapest out there.
 

Kavashua

Mmmm Kava
I have had more dermo problems with Dua than any other kava product. With that being said it’s actually what I was drinking today, I still buy it when I’m low on funds and it does the job I just don’t overindulge and it’s kept the dermo to a minimum. Note: my experience has always been with the Fijian waka, i was so disappointed with the Vanuatu from Dua that I only bought it once
 

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
I finally bought some Dua Na Bilo Vanuatu kava, despite the largely mixed/negative reviews. The claims of it being Tanna Kava and the price were enough motivation for me to give it a try.

I don’t want to make any ‘fact’ claims without real empirical evidence but the first thing I noticed upon smelling the powder, is that it has a specific aroma that I’ve noticed in a few kavas I’ve purchased before. Every other time I've had a kava with this particular scent, I got it tested and the results came back positive for having aerials mixed in. I tend to describe this scent as raisins & dried tobacco (but that might just be the association my mind makes) and the scent has always been correlated with bad product, in my experience.

The next thing I noticed, was that it brews up into a very dark color compared to most kavas...again, this matches my previous experience with kavas that smelled this way.

Finally, the effect was very mild, which also aligns with all my past experiences of kavas that had this smell and color and turned out to be mixed with aerials.

So, I’m not saying this kava is definitely mixed with aerials, but, it checks all the boxes that I can reference from my own anecdotal experience.
 
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Kava Mang

Kava Curious
I use this kava as a regular weeknight drinker, due to the price and it being strong enough but not too strong.
I am not in touch with the kava science behind testing

Can or have anyone tested this for aerials? I would rather pay the extra few dollars to upgrade my weeknight staple than worry about not getting 100% root.

I almost seem to like the Vanuatu better than their Fijian. But if these rumors turn out to be true I am liable to steer clear of this company all together going forward.
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
I have drunk pound after pound of this and have many more pound in the pantry. I drink it for the flavor, which I enjoy and for its pleasant lightness, making it perfect for breakfast or at work. Don't think I have ever had it at night, not sure that would fit. Yes it is dark, tastes sweet/raisiny, and it isn't very strong. These are all things I love about it. My wife loves it twice as much as me. She is the only other person I know who likes it. Sure others drink it but we love it. De gustibus non est disputandem. There is no wrong here, if you don't like it, you don't like it.

I have never experienced any problems from it, and each of us has consumed 5 to 10 pounds of it in the past year.

It is not like any other Vanuatu root I ever had, in any way. I do not recommend it to people since no one seems to enjoy it much. It is different. Closest I know would be the RoH Samoan. Dark, sweet, light.
 

SelfBiasResistor

Persist for Resistance!
I gave up on DnB a while back. The first product they sold was great and very unique (supposedly single cultivar fijian). The last bag I got from them was the first kava product I've bought that really made me question if it was actually kava. 0 kava effects or side effects.
 

kw2292

Kava Curious
I got a bag of this in the mail yesterday and the bag had exploded in the mailer. Not sure if it’s amazons fault or DnB. The bag appeared to have never sealed. Kava is super dry and looks like dirt is mixed in. I enjoy their Fijian.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
Left: Starwest. Middle: Kava Kaua’i. Right: Dua Na Bilo Vanuatu
1B8E3E30-3E96-40B4-A53A-2742B61CDE70.jpeg

Acetone test can’t show aerial adulteration to the naked eye, unless it was full of green leaves. A spectrometer would be required to determine what’s actually going on, but I tested it anyway to see if it resembled the Starwest Botanicals powder result, since they smell, taste and feel the same and have a similar color when prepared. The dry powders don’t look similar.
 

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
Left: Starwest. Middle: Kava Kaua’i. Right: Dua Na Bilo Vanuatu
View attachment 9592
Acetone test can’t show aerial adulteration to the naked eye, unless it was full of green leaves. A spectrometer would be required to determine what’s actually going on, but I tested it anyway to see if it resembled the Starwest Botanicals powder result, since they smell, taste and feel the same and have a similar color when prepared. The dry powders don’t look similar.
Do you think a centrifuge would alter your results instead of waiting a few days for it to settle?
 

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
I use this kava as a regular weeknight drinker, due to the price and it being strong enough but not too strong.
I am not in touch with the kava science behind testing

Can or have anyone tested this for aerials? I would rather pay the extra few dollars to upgrade my weeknight staple than worry about not getting 100% root.

I almost seem to like the Vanuatu better than their Fijian. But if these rumors turn out to be true I am liable to steer clear of this company all together going forward.
It's probably not gonna kill, but there is definitely something "off" about it and like I said I encountered this particular "off-ness" several time in the past and it always turned out to be aerial adulteration...not sure what parts or to what degree. In one example the person who tested it for said, the aerial spike in the spectrometer reading seemed relatively small...to the point where it's surprising that the scent would be so obvious to me.
We aren't really quite clear on what the producers are doing that creates this certain scent/flavor...but it does appear to have something to do aerials. But there could be additional issues like, the powder got damp at some point and started molding and then got re-dried...maybe that could change the scent/flavor.

I have drunk pound after pound of this and have many more pound in the pantry. I drink it for the flavor, which I enjoy and for its pleasant lightness, making it perfect for breakfast or at work. Don't think I have ever had it at night, not sure that would fit. Yes it is dark, tastes sweet/raisiny, and it isn't very strong. These are all things I love about it. My wife loves it twice as much as me. She is the only other person I know who likes it. Sure others drink it but we love it. De gustibus non est disputandem. There is no wrong here, if you don't like it, you don't like it.

I have never experienced any problems from it, and each of us has consumed 5 to 10 pounds of it in the past year.

It is not like any other Vanuatu root I ever had, in any way. I do not recommend it to people since no one seems to enjoy it much. It is different. Closest I know would be the RoH Samoan. Dark, sweet, light.
I could see from your experience, that you could just assume it's a different kava with a different scent, no different than any other variances in other kavas out there. But I been paying attention to this for many years, and this scent in particular threw a red flag out in my mind from the first time I every came across it. My brain doesn't even recognize it as kava, where as I could smell four different bags of 'proper' kava, each with they're own unqiue scent and yet my brain immediately recognizes them as kava, despite their individually uniquenesses. Like I said, so far, every time I've recieved a kava like this and had it tested...the spectrometer showed aerial adulteration. I'm not saying that it's necessarily going to harm you...but we do know that there is at least one chemical in aerial parts that we should be avoiding...and that the beverage isn't really kava if it's not purely roots. Beyond the possibility of aerial adulteration, the main problem I have when I receive powder like this is the disappointment I have when I paid for something I was hoping to enjoy, but instead it's incredibly weak and smells and tastes weird.

It's literally the only kava I've ever returned. Just returned it a few weeks ago. Absolute trash.
Was your bag opened? How does the return processes work for it...I've never returned anything to amazon...but this powder was such trash, I was considering returning it too.

@Krunʞy I've seen the recent talk about centrifuge affecting the acetone test color...I'm not really looking to dump money into one. I just like doing these quick cheap acetone tests out of curiosity..and typically drink the kavas i get, no matter what the result is.

-----------
One hypothesis I have right now, regarding these particular kavas is that the producers might be processing the kasa and the lewena together after removing the waka. Typically when you harvest a kava plant, they still have 6" - 18" of stems (kasa) sticking out of the top, which normally gets removed later during processing. To have more bulk to sell, I could see some of these guys just grinding it all up to make more money.
RootID.jpg
kasa.jpg
 

Zaphod

Kava Lover
I finally bought some Dua Na Bilo Vanuatu kava, despite the largely mixed/negative reviews. The claims of it being Tanna Kava and the price were enough motivation for me to give it a try.

I don’t want to make any ‘fact’ claims without real empirical evidence but the first thing I noticed upon smelling the powder, is that it has a specific aroma that I’ve noticed in a few kavas I’ve purchased before. Every other time I've had a kava with this particular scent, I got it tested and the results came back positive for having aerials mixed in. I tend to describe this scent as raisins & dried tobacco (but that might just be the association my mind makes) and the scent has always been correlated with bad product, in my experience.

The next thing I noticed, was that it brews up into a very dark color compared to most kavas...again, this matches my previous experience with kavas that smelled this way.

Finally, the effect was very mild, which also aligns with all my past experiences of kavas that had this smell and color and turned out to be mixed with aerials.

So, I’m not saying this kava is definitely mixed with aerials, but, it checks all the boxes that I can reference from my own anecdotal experience.
The one really dark kava that I remember getting had the same taste of "raisins & dried tobacco" flavor although my first take at it made me think of an almost root beer flavor. Definitely smelled different as well. While I did not have bad effects from it, the kava effects were very mild. I barely made 3-4 batches out of it before giving up on it.
 

TheKavaFlow

Kava Podcaster
It's probably not gonna kill, but there is definitely something "off" about it and like I said I encountered this particular "off-ness" several time in the past and it always turned out to be aerial adulteration...not sure what parts or to what degree. In one example the person who tested it for said, the aerial spike in the spectrometer reading seemed relatively small...to the point where it's surprising that the scent would be so obvious to me.
We aren't really quite clear on what the producers are doing that creates this certain scent/flavor...but it does appear to have something to do aerials. But there could be additional issues like, the powder got damp at some point and started molding and then got re-dried...maybe that could change the scent/flavor.


I could see from your experience, that you could just assume it's a different kava with a different scent, no different than any other variances in other kavas out there. But I been paying attention to this for many years, and this scent in particular threw a red flag out in my mind from the first time I every came across it. My brain doesn't even recognize it as kava, where as I could smell four different bags of 'proper' kava, each with they're own unqiue scent and yet my brain immediately recognizes them as kava, despite their individually uniquenesses. Like I said, so far, every time I've recieved a kava like this and had it tested...the spectrometer showed aerial adulteration. I'm not saying that it's necessarily going to harm you...but we do know that there is at least one chemical in aerial parts that we should be avoiding...and that the beverage isn't really kava if it's not purely roots. Beyond the possibility of aerial adulteration, the main problem I have when I receive powder like this is the disappointment I have when I paid for something I was hoping to enjoy, but instead it's incredibly weak and smells and tastes weird.


Was your bag opened? How does the return processes work for it...I've never returned anything to amazon...but this powder was such trash, I was considering returning it too.

@Krunʞy I've seen the recent talk about centrifuge affecting the acetone test color...I'm not really looking to dump money into one. I just like doing these quick cheap acetone tests out of curiosity..and typically drink the kavas i get, no matter what the result is.

-----------
One hypothesis I have right now, regarding these particular kavas is that the producers might be processing the kasa and the lewena together after removing the waka. Typically when you harvest a kava plant, they still have 6" - 18" of stems (kasa) sticking out of the top, which normally gets removed later during processing. To have more bulk to sell, I could see some of these guys just grinding it all up to make more money.
View attachment 9593 View attachment 9594
Well, I should clarify. I bought 2 bags because it was so cheap. I tried one of the bags, found it was garbage, and decided to return the unopened bag. I've returned other opened stuff to Amazon without problem, so I assume this is the same situation. It's literally hitting the "refund" button on Amazon, printing out a label, and dropping the package off at a mailing place nearby. Super easy and they allow for refunds up to a month or so after receiving the package.

I actually kept the opened bag so I could get some testing done. I normally try to stay pretty neutral about kava vendors, but this was so bad I would hate for anyone to waste their money on it -- especially newbies thinking that's what all kava is like.
 

recentreturn

Kava Enthusiast
Man, I recall this stuff was getting good reviews a year or two ago; so much that it was on my list to try but I didn't get to it. But this is a lot of bad experiences reported.
 

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
The one really dark kava that I remember getting had the same taste of "raisins & dried tobacco" flavor although my first take at it made me think of an almost root beer flavor. Definitely smelled different as well. While I did not have bad effects from it, the kava effects were very mild. I barely made 3-4 batches out of it before giving up on it.
Funny you mention 'Root Beer'...One of my other hypotheses about what this type of kava might be is that it's actually Piper Auritum instead of Piper Methisticum. Piper Auritum ("False Kava") is also sometimes called "Root Beer Plant". I've tried to find a chemical analysis of P. Auritum roots specifically -- I couldn't find anything mentioning the roots but I did find this info:
"The essential oil of P. auritum was characterized by high phenylpropanoid content (97.5%), in which safrole (93.2%) was found to be the major constituent and myristicine the second (4.3%)."
As I've mentioned in the past, 'Safrole' is the precurssor of MDMA(Ecstasy), people who've smelled pure MDMA often attribute smells to it like "root beer", "cinnamon" "licorice" or "candy store". The Sassafrass tree also happens to be another major source of "Safrole" and is the same tree that actual root beer beverage flavorings are extracted from.

The other chemical found in P. Auritum, "Myristicin" is also found in the spice Nutmeg and it is psychoactive. Also take notice of the similarity "Myri-sticin" / "Methy-sticin" --- Safrole, myristicin, methysticin and MDMA all share an identical front half of their chemical chain. Perhaps this relation is enough to make them all have a similar scent.

The kava's that I'm describing as raisins/dried tobacco scent when I sniff the bag do take on a scent/flavor that has a rootbeer/spice/cinnamon essence to it once I knead the powder in water. I don't thinks it's out of the realm of possibility that we're drinking P. Auritum or at least a mix of it with P. Methysticum.
 
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Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
IAE, I have been drinking this, including the newest batch, which I find has that flavour in a much more pronounced way. I usually now blend it 1:3 with other kavas. I have had zero bad effects from drinking it. The previous batch I enjoy drinking straight. My wife loves the new batch straight.
 
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