Well, from what I understand, Dr Schmidt actually supports the use of the acetone test and claims it is great for those eager to err on the side of caution. If the result of the test is positive you have nothing to worry about. If it is negative you’ll have to start asking questions (which actually means it's most likely not noble unless there are some unknown, bizarre, odd factors that need to be assessed on a case by case basis). I personally wouldn't bother asking any questions and would just stick to the kavas that pass the test. It's not like we don't have much choice.
I remember you saying about the troubles of quality control when each batch at the exporter level is made up of many smaller batches from individual farmers. I don't think the testing is the problem though and I just wouldn't call what the testers and others are trying to do as a witch hunt against tu*ei kava.
I can tell you right now. .. if a kava shows orange it's going in the garbage can and I wouldn't order from that vendor again. I don't need to take chances. I'm very happy erring on the side of caution.
That's true but still there are a lot of untested kavas going around at the moment that are noble because the vendor knows if they make people ill with dubious kava they will probably lose a lot of business as a result and so nearly all vendors are now on the noble wagon.
Haha. Never met a Vanuatu kava grower have you? They're not exactly a union of organized farmers spread across the many islands. They often don't even speak the same languages beyond some basic Bislama. Quite a few of the kava growing villages don't even have power. They're poor (from a financial standpoint) and they live simple lives. Hiring attorneys to fight government policy isn't really in their realm of thought. They'll probably just keep growing tudei until they can't sell it anymore.
Yes Noble kava was created through selecting kavas with desirable effects. It started with only wild wichmanii (spelling?) They would see a mutation in these kava's and then try it, if the effects were good they would keep it. After some time they started to get more and more good kava and then noble kava was born, the tudei kava is kind of a link between the wild kava and tudei kava. wild kava has seeds and the kava we love so much does not. If I have a Moi and grow it for years and years it will not change to give you the effects of say the "Koniak".
I understand your devil's advocate look at this but what we have to keep in mind is many companies (mostly foreign) have come in with the sole purpose of capatilizing on the financial aspect of the recent kava popularity and wanting to cut corners anywhere possible to maximize quick profits. They purchase and advocate for the growing of Tudei varieties not for the "traditional medicinal value" but for the low cost due to lack of demand in Vanuatu. Typically these mixes will be of a "moderate" Tudei like Vabu and Noble Borogu usually mixed at a 30:70 ratio to have a "Noble Chemotype" but producing FK levels still high above any known Noble cultivar and the associated side effects of lethargy and nausea. The real issue though lies with extracting these "Noble Chemotypes", concentrating the harmful constituents. There's so much we still don't know about kava outside of the main 6 kavalactones and FKs. There very well could be a constiuent that hasn't even been studied extensively that's present in Tudeis and not Nobles since they are genetically different plants.
