What's new

VU kava variety info

AndrewG

Kava Curious
Aloha everyone,

I started this weekly kava posting on Instagram. Has anyone ever heard of Vakorokoro? Lebot doesn't have info on it. My friend Michael Louze says his guess is that "it would be an earlier 1980’ kava listing, it should give us an indication...
With this name, which sounds fairly Polynesian / Fijian, I would be tempted to say it originates ( originated?) from Shefa Province... Maybe even Vate.... unless it has been brought from another place? Korokoro is a neighborhood in Northern Viti Levu ..? Or PNG?"

Thought I'd ask here too, it was part of the VARTC collection before the major vandalism. Any info? I do have pics of it.

At the same time, any papers or info on kava cultivars (history, name meaning, uses, etc) as a whole you could share would be nice. I am always looking to add to research I do not have.
 

kasa_balavu

Yaqona Dina
Korokoro is a neighborhood in Northern Viti Levu ..? Or PNG?"
Koro means village in Fijian. While it's not out of the question (I certainly don't know the name of every village and settlement in Viti Levu), I would be very surprised if a village here bore that name.

Could it be an alternate name for a cultivar with a more popular name? Different places in Fiji have different names for some Fijian cultivars.
 

AndrewG

Kava Curious
Koro means village in Fijian. While it's not out of the question (I certainly don't know the name of every village and settlement in Viti Levu), I would be very surprised if a village here bore that name.

Could it be an alternate name for a cultivar with a more popular name? Different places in Fiji have different names for some Fijian cultivars.
It was just a guess, as it is a Vanuatu cultivar. The name does bear some resemblance but I don't think it's likely from Fiji.
 

TheKavaSociety

New Zealand
Kava Vendor
Might just be a local name for another cultivar. Or something quite rare. The 1980s list is by no means the last word on Vanuatu cultivars. For instance, I've recently tried 3 noble cultivars from Epi that have never been listed or described in the literature, including one simply known as "good kava" haha.
 

AndrewG

Kava Curious
Might just be a local name for another cultivar. Or something quite rare. The 1980s list is by no means the last word on Vanuatu cultivars. For instance, I've recently tried 3 noble cultivars from Epi that have never been listed or described in the literature, including one simply known as "good kava" haha.
Yes, you are right, yet at the same time
Traditional knowledge and vernacular languages are disappearing very rapidly, everybody speaks Bislama nowadays, so varieties are losing their vernacular names too and are often re-named in Bislama; white kava, green kava, red kava... etc...

the kava bars don't really know what they are selling, except the geographical origin (island and/or village) at best
 
Top