Taveuni's Secret is, to me, a good functional day time kava that's very gentle, light on the body and never overwhelming, even at doses in excess of 10 Tbsp or around 88 grams. It's the type of kava that would be good for a social gathering, where you need to be more active than you would be in a fully grogged out, 'listen to the kava' stupor. Take heed however, my experience may be different than yours and many reviews of this product tend to consider it an extremely potent blast of headiness, it just doesn't respond that way with me.
The scent and flavor are a standard earthy/dry wood aroma. The bitterness is fairly mild and dissipates quickly, so while it isn't particularly good tasting, it's mild non-lingering taste makes it one of the easier to drink kavas I've had in a long time. The grind is a pretty legitimate 'medium' grind, with a mix of fine powders and longer fibers, including some big chunks which I chewed up and used in my mix.
The cultivar is said to be the Loa Kasa Leka variety or 'dark-stem-short', describing the internode appearance, which is one of the most planted cultivars in Fiji. Apparently, according to Ronald Gatty, as quoted in Dr. Lebot's kava book, when kava was being developed as a cash crop in the 1950s, farmers began planting only the most productive cultivars. This lead to farmers often favoring only 2 or 3 cultivars (such as Loa Kasa Leka & Loa Kasa Balavu) known for their hardiness and disease resistance. So, even though the local drinkers didn't necessarily consider them to be the most palatable or most potent, they were more widely grown due to the disease resistance and early maturation of the crop as compared to the green stemmed kavas, which are considered the best in Fiji.
I'm not sure how much of that actually holds up to science, or is just traditional local belief. I tend to think kava can be a bit more random and varying than that binary description, maybe it does happen to be true of Fiji's cultivars but not other countries. For example, in Vanautu, a local guy from Tanna told me the opposite, that the dark stemmed kava's are stronger...
Anyway, Taveuni's Secret is a nice, gentle daytime social kava, that won't lay you out, doesn't make you queasy, keeps some of your appetite in tact and is very quick and easy to shake off the next morning. Good for anxiety relief without getting sloppy or dopey. Not necessarily recommended for people in search of muscle melting, deep relaxation, floating on cloud nine vibes. Kava Time's Savu Savu waka remains to be my favorite of the bunch.
The scent and flavor are a standard earthy/dry wood aroma. The bitterness is fairly mild and dissipates quickly, so while it isn't particularly good tasting, it's mild non-lingering taste makes it one of the easier to drink kavas I've had in a long time. The grind is a pretty legitimate 'medium' grind, with a mix of fine powders and longer fibers, including some big chunks which I chewed up and used in my mix.
The cultivar is said to be the Loa Kasa Leka variety or 'dark-stem-short', describing the internode appearance, which is one of the most planted cultivars in Fiji. Apparently, according to Ronald Gatty, as quoted in Dr. Lebot's kava book, when kava was being developed as a cash crop in the 1950s, farmers began planting only the most productive cultivars. This lead to farmers often favoring only 2 or 3 cultivars (such as Loa Kasa Leka & Loa Kasa Balavu) known for their hardiness and disease resistance. So, even though the local drinkers didn't necessarily consider them to be the most palatable or most potent, they were more widely grown due to the disease resistance and early maturation of the crop as compared to the green stemmed kavas, which are considered the best in Fiji.
I'm not sure how much of that actually holds up to science, or is just traditional local belief. I tend to think kava can be a bit more random and varying than that binary description, maybe it does happen to be true of Fiji's cultivars but not other countries. For example, in Vanautu, a local guy from Tanna told me the opposite, that the dark stemmed kava's are stronger...
Anyway, Taveuni's Secret is a nice, gentle daytime social kava, that won't lay you out, doesn't make you queasy, keeps some of your appetite in tact and is very quick and easy to shake off the next morning. Good for anxiety relief without getting sloppy or dopey. Not necessarily recommended for people in search of muscle melting, deep relaxation, floating on cloud nine vibes. Kava Time's Savu Savu waka remains to be my favorite of the bunch.
@kavatime
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