Great question Schlang. When we started the formulation for our relaxation drink and concentrate we literally sourced every possible extract we could find across the globe. This included everything on Alibaba at the time and extracts from German, New Zealand, and US companies as well. We ran them through basic tests such as acetone and HPLC but also personal tests of drinking them nightly. From personal experience, we had a lot of rough mornings afterwards. Granted, consumption of these 1 or 2 times probably won't do any long term damage (I'm hoping anyways ) but recurring use is what contributed to all the issues back in the early 2000s. This is why we ultimately decided to contract a company to extract our own root we import so we knew exactly what we were getting. As said before, anything that is a powdered extract is almost guaranteed to be using acetone or other solvents - I'm not aware of any other methods currently utilized other than water exraction for instant kava but these won't be sold as "extracts" and don't get into the 30-80% kavalactone range.@Kalm with Kava Thanks a lot for your input.
I understand your point and have no interested in cheap-quality Kava. Have you actually bought/ analyzed any of the Aliexpress Kava though or are you basing your opinion on assumptions because there is quite a numbers of different sellers on that platform as well as on Alibaba.com? I am sure there is a lot of terrible Kava on the market but I have bought other consumption products from Aliexpress (particularly tea) and only had a few disappointment. I am sure it is different with Kava though because you can not rate the quality by smell, looks and taste (as far as I know, but I am new to this). Once it's in there, it's in there. The first seller I pointed out in yesterday's post actually also claims their Kava is 100% noble.
Is there actually any sort of certification that could be requested for Kava products? However, even this probably would not mean a lot when buying a product from China...