A few observations about the South Pacific kava producers and consumers:
1. I don't know why
@Kavasseur keeps telling us that he had some tudei kava with the Solomon Islanders. Is this meant to prove that traditional kava drinkers do not mind tudei? I am surprised that you are not aware of the fact that kava is likely not more "traditional" in the Solomon Islands than it is in Florida. As
@Deleted User once noted, LEbot writes in his book that "
According to Whitmore (1966), no proven specimen of P. methysticum has been found in the Solomon Islands, and today kava is consumed nowhere in the archipelago...".
2. As I noted earlier, it is recognized by Vanuatu kava dealers, that farmers sell stuff they themselves would not drink. It is a known reality in Vanuatu and tells us quite a lot about how "traditional" the kava exported from Vanuatu is. The truth is that spiked kava is indeed a "Western invention". But not in the sense that the problem is "made up" by a bunch of Westerners, but simply because traditional drinkers and farmers do not spike their kava. Yes, in many cases they simply control the production, but hey - now thanks to
@Deleted User we don't have to physically supervise harvesting to detect crap, so we can finally drink the traditional (i.e. not Western!) type of kava!
3. Many islanders living in places like New Zealand drink spiked and shitty kava not because they don't care, but because they try to be polite. If you come to a Fijian kava circle in Auckland, you will notice that various people bring kava from different sources. It is considered extremely impolite to question the quality of these "kava contributions". It is the cultural equivalent of inviting someone for a birthday party and then conducting loud research to find out how expensive the gift from him/her is and commenting whether he or she is cheap. The thing is that while this Fijian politeness made sense on the islands where virtually "all kava was kava", it doesn't make that much sense anymore (and this fact is recognized by quite a few of my Fijian friends, but you know - it's culture!). Still, the islanders living in Auckland CAN tell the difference between shitty and good kava and certainly prefer the latter. They just don't want to be rude and are OK with drinking whatever is brought to the circle, even when they know that some of these kavas will give them two-day hangovers! (yes, even they know about tudei!). Thank God we are not bound by these cultural conventions... Ah, wait,
@Kavasseur thinks he should be.
4. In NZ the most ant-kava islanders come from either non-kava drinking islands (e.g. the Cook Islands) or from various religious circles (Mormons, Adventists). In their "advocacy" work and publications they love examples of "two day hangovers" and things of that sort because such anecdotes confirm their general anti-kava message. It is very convenient for them that drinking unlabelled kava is the equivalent of a "Pacific roulette", this reinforces the message that kava is an unpredictable product. Our best defense against such people (who are quite vocal here) is not to argue that even spiked kava can be nice, but to push for coming back to using traditional (i.e. not spiked) kava.
