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Micronized Kava Review Kava Kava R Us - Pualiu - Micronized

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
· Kava Kava R Us ·
P u a l i u - M i c r o

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I was on the hunt for a new cultivar and stumbled upon the claim that Kava Kava R Us' micronized root is made out of the Pualiu variety from Vanuatu. I e-mailed them to see if they carry any medium grind Pualiu, but unfortunately they do not, so I went ahead and ordered the micro.

The powder itself is a nice and fine micronization, it seemed to have golden/orange hue to it and has definitely been baked. I've previously done some experiments with baking kava and can verify by taste and scent that this kava was baked. The flavor has a toasted, floury, malted, mild, nutty flavor with a hint of cocoa, there is almost no trace of it's original scent/flavor, which I find somewhat disappointing despite the fact that the baked flavor would probably be considered more palatable.

The effect is pleasant and puts you in a fairly heady yet sedate light state of dreaminess. A heady kava, leaning strongly toward being balanced, but not quite balanced enough to give the deeper, full body buzz vibe, to any notable degree. Definitely not a purely heady, clean, bounce-in-your-step kind of root either though. The first 1 or 2 tablespoons are where this kava seemed to shine the most, I was always hoping additional doses would increase that initial enjoyment, but instead it just seemed to settle in upon further drinking, without getting much more pleasant. It does continue to add to the sedation and anxiolytic effect, however, I do notice a little bit of that rushy chest/heart feeling creep in. Based on the effects, I suspected this kava to have a fairly high showing of Yangonin (3) and DHK (2) or Methysticin (6), sure enough, I looked up the reported chemotype and it was
243651.

Kava Kava R Us might have the worst name, logo and website in the kava game, but subjectively, their micronized kava was on par with all the other micros I've had. No better, no worse, excluding the great experience I had with Paradise Kava's 12 yr Micro that brought me very close to the effect of fresh strong Vanuatu kava. The overall experience was better than average, but somewhere below extraordinary.

This company has a negative history on the Kava Forums and were chased away after trying to defend their kava's reputation when images of orange acetone results came out. There's no way for me to know if the current product is the same as it was back then, but if it truly is the Pualiu cultivar and has a 234651 chemotype, then it is noble. From my experience with it, I personally didn't notice any tudei-like effects. I did an acetone test on it, alongside some tudei and noble kava, it appears to be yellower than the tudei but not quite as yellow as my noble. It looks better in person than in the pics, but that's usually how it goes. I also added pics of the actual powder to show it's orange hue. Makes me wonder if there might be some orange pigment being pulled into the acetone extract, that isn't the same orange pigment that's seen in tudei extracts.

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Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
It's possible that like Stone, it was a bad batch, I personally don't drink n@h but many do. As you say there is no way to know the exact chemotype unless its tested. It would be nice to revisit some of these less popular vendors to see if their products improved, stayed the same or got worst.

The acetone test looks promising and the last one by Deleted User looked a lot different.
 
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