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Bula Kava House

Bula Kava House

Portland, OR
Kava Vendor
Kava Bar Owner
In compliance with FDA and AKA standards, we've been working recently at getting the required tests from accredited labs for kavalactone chemotype, heavy metals, and microbiological contaminants. We're even doing flavokavain levels to give you even more information about what you're drinking. We'll have fancy CoAs posted on our website soon, but I thought I'd give a little sneak peak of the results of some of the favorites.

Borogu- Chemotype: 243615, Total KL %: 10.17, Flavokavain A: .003% Flavokavain B: .057% Flavokavain C: .091%
11 Year Waka- Chemotype: 346251, Total KL %: 11.69, Flavokavain A: .001% Flavokavain B: .022% Flavokavain C: .025%
Nangol Noble: Chemotype: 423561, Total KL% 9.35, Flavokavain A: .002% Flavokavain B .050%: , Flavokavain C: .075%

Microbiological and heavy metals readings for all kavas tested are well within the FDA accepted limit.

These are all nice noble chemotypes and KL%s, as well as noble flavokavain levels. Of note is the extremely low level of FKB in the 11 Year Waka. It's actually lower than all other kavas tested in this batch, and lower than any other kava I've ever seen tested. They're really all nice low levels though, if FKB in aqueous kava extracts is something that concerns you.

Keep an eye on our website and blog moving forward, as we are now testing every lot of kava we sell. Your safety and enjoyment of our products is our primary concern. This is our attempt to ensure both.
 
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Steve Mariotti

Steve Mariotti

Kavapithecus Krunkarensis
Review Maestro
That's great info Judd! Interesting to see a chemotype start with yangonin! I will have to order up some of that there kava. I've been enjoying your Nambawan immensely and that Borogu looks pretty sweet as well, with the DHM all the way to the right.

Great stuff!
 
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Bula Kava House

Bula Kava House

Portland, OR
Kava Vendor
Kava Bar Owner
Yeah Steve, that 11 Year is a unique kava for sure.

And oops, looks like I originally gave numbers for Boroguru. That's actually Borogu. My bad! Editing now.
 
Bula Kava House

Bula Kava House

Portland, OR
Kava Vendor
Kava Bar Owner
Yes, it is quite unique, but not quite as unique as it appears. The kavain and yangonin are just a couple hundredths of a decimal different. It could quite easily test 43xxx on another occasion. The 7 year old version of the same cultivar has much lower yangonin levels so we believe that as a plant ages, yangonin levels may increase at a higher rate than the other kavalactones.
 
ApéroNoble

ApéroNoble

The d'Artagnan forum 4th Kavateer
Judd Rench said:
In compliance with FDA and AKA standards, we've been working recently at getting the required tests from accredited labs for kavalactone chemotype, heavy metals, and microbiological contaminants. We're even doing flavokavain levels to give you even more information about what you're drinking. We'll have fancy CoAs posted on our website soon, but I thought I'd give a little sneak peak of the results of some of the favorites.

Borogu- Chemotype: 243615, Total KL %: 10.17, Flavokavain A: .003% Flavokavain B: .057% Flavokavain C: .091%
11 Year Waka- Chemotype: 346251, Total KL %: 11.69, Flavokavain A: .001% Flavokavain B: .022% Flavokavain C: .025%
Nangol Noble: Chemotype: 423561, Total KL% 9.35, Flavokavain A: .002% Flavokavain B .050%: , Flavokavain C: .075%

Microbiological and heavy metals readings for all kavas tested are well within the FDA accepted limit.

These are all nice noble chemotypes and KL%s, as well as noble flavokavain levels. Of note is the extremely low level of FKB in the 11 Year Waka. It's actually lower than all other kavas tested in this batch, and lower than any other kava I've ever seen tested. They're really all nice low levels though, if FKB in aqueous kava extracts is something that concerns you.

Keep an eye on our website and blog moving forward, as we are now testing every lot of kava we sell. Your safety and enjoyment of our products is our primary concern. This is our attempt to ensure both.
Click to expand...
All joking aside, nice progress Mr. Rench, intriguing flavokavain breakdowns, good to see cGMP/FDA compliance, after all what good is any kava if contaminated; lawsuit anyone? Thanks for sharing....
 
Bula Kava House

Bula Kava House

Portland, OR
Kava Vendor
Kava Bar Owner
The chemotype given for 11 Year is different than others I've shown in the past. The first one I showed, and posted on my website, is from a plant of the same cultivar that was seven years old instead of the 11, that I always sell. The test was done by the supplier, and she didn't think it was all that important that they weren't the same age. In the grand scheme of things it's really not, but I like to provide results for the exact product I'm selling, so I had her send in a sample of the 11 year old plant. These results show chemotype 463xxx, which was accurate at the time. Of notice, was the increase in yangonin (3) in the older plants. The trained botanist who grows and studies this kava for the company that sells it believes that as this plant gets very mature, yangonin increases at a higher rate than the other kavalactones, therefore changing the chemotype.

With being an AKA member, it is now necessary to test EVERY batch of kava, so I had the 11 Year tested yet again (a slightly older plant, by the way. I need to start calling it 12 Year). This gave a new chemotype with an even higher yangonin reading, giving us a 346xxx chemotype. That being said, giving a simple chemotype in order of concentration only gives part of the story, you need the percentages to get the rest. The percentages are 3(2.33%) 4(2.3%) 6(2.17%) As you can see, the yangonin and kavain are within 3 hundredths. That's so close, it's very much within a margin for error. More or less indistinguishable. If you were to test this again, there's a good chance it would yield a 436. It's that close. So close in fact that the lab actually listed the chemotype as 346 OR 436, but the percentages are the percentages and so I reported 346 here on the forum.

I've seen many HPLC tests from experienced labs, and it is VERY common for a chemotype to be a number different here and there for the same cultivar. Sometimes it's simple testing variance, sometimes it's because a different plant is tested, or a different part of the plant is tested. Rest assured, I'll be testing every batch from now on and CoAs will be posted on the website. In any case, all tests have been very close when looking at actual percentages. The fact is that the balance of kavalactones in this product mean that the numbers tend to switch around a bit within the chemotype. I expect this to continue with future CoAs when I start selling from new lots.

What's exciting is the uniqueness of this kava. It is high in kavain and low in DHM and flavokavains, and is considered a daily drinking, noble kava in Fiji. The yangonin levels offer drinkers a possible experience unlike any other kava. As has been pointed out to me, there aren't very many kavas out there with yangonin in one of the first two positions, if any. It is possible that the age simply changed the kavalactone concentrations, but it's also possible that we're drinking an awesome undocumented kava cultivar! How exciting!

Edit: I removed a sentence about the tests done by the supplier, as I read them slightly wrong when I just referenced them.
 
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Steve973

Steve973

Kava Curious
I'm glad to see how these tests are coming out, particularly because of the very adversarial debate that happened a while ago. It is good to see you vindicated, Judd.
 
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