What is happening with ND?

I've heard of them. They are in Australia, correct? I think /u/Pretty-Chill has tried them and said he likes some of their stuff. We have not tested any of their stuff, though. I will have to get some to run through the lab.

I just looked at their site, and this is a big concern:

SOURCING AND SUSTAINABILITY

Root & Pestle source all its kava from traditional kava farmers (we don’t compete and grow our own). We consistently work together to improve quality control practices around the harvesting and transportation of the raw product. All our farmers are encouraged to harvest only mature, noble kava plantsto ensure consistent quality and optimum kavalactone content. We also match supply with demand so our kava is delivered, processed and packaged within twenty-four hours post-harvest to lock in freshness and taste.

I get that they are touting that they don't own the farms, and buy from small local traditional kava farmers, as a good thing. They are marketing it as a sort of sustainability and supporting local farmer situation. I get that. However, that's precisely the issue with the entire kava market. Poor farmers on islands with very little infrastructure, no thought to quality control, no central quality systems tracking sourcing of each root/batching control, and harvesting and processing techniques/machinery that are set more by tradition and economic factors rather than thought out planning with quality in mind is the reason the market as a whole has these quality issues. That's not inherently a complete hurdle to having a quality end product, as long as you have robust quality systems of your own. However, I don't see any COAs or lab testing on their site at all. Maybe they do lab testing, but just don't show it? I can't say, because they don't say. They are not even stating the kavalactone percentages on the site or product pages. Again, maybe they are testing for stuff, but they are just not posting it or talking about it. That's possible. However, I don't buy anything anymore without good evidence of robust quality systems.

We have worked with Morgan from Calm With Kava for a few years now, and done testing for him and helped give him advice on his quality systems. They even have a farm that they own in Hawaii, where they can control the whole process. In those scenarios you can set up the operation with a good quality system in place. Even he admits that buying from farms in Fiji and Vanuatu is a crap shoot. You just have no control there, other than with people like IMCD that have set up farms and processing facilities. The closest second would be someone like Forney Enterprises. They are building a big processing facility in Vanuatu right now that looks like will be nice. Actually, most vendors on the market are just buying Forney stuff. I actually think Root and Pestle are doing just that. The image they have on their science page is the same one from the Forney site.

https://rootandpestlekava.com.au/pages/kava-science

https://forneyenterprisekava.com/about-kava/

So I would bet money that Root and Pestle is just buying Forney stuff and putting it into bags, and likely doing no lab testing of their own. Maybe they just jacked their image, but I know many people just buy from Forney. I've gotten some good stuff from Forney, so it's certainly not all bad. Nakamal At Home is selling Forney stuff. However, I was not satisfied with their quality system and control over batch-to-batch variability. Maybe with their new facility they will be able to do that. We will have to see. I will say that Forney doesn't own the farms. They source from the local farmers on the islands like most others do. This is the big breakdown in the supply chain. They at least are not using old rusted machines like some of the other suppliers, so that is less of a risk at that stage. However, not controlling the farms, or at least not being able to have total visibility into the quality systems (or lack thereof), is the main cause of the batch-to-batch issues we have seen.

So no doubt there are kavas out there that feel a lot more potent than ours from a cognitive perspective. I have taken a bunch myself. I really like Kelai, if you can get a good batch. I also have gotten some really cool fresh kava from Hawaii, where they harvest it and flash freeze it, then ship express to me. Then I can make it traditionally from fresh roots. It's a whole different experience! It smells and tastes like floral cucumber water. Fresh kava is something that kava lovers should try if they get the chance. It's a totally different experience. Honestly, our kava is more suited to the muscle relaxing effects of kava. This is mainly what I tell people to use it for now. Our Relievex works insanely well for the people that love it, and it is because of that muscle relaxing effect. When you have back pain due to knots and muscle tension, Relievex is like magic. However, it doesn't make you "drunk" or inebriated like many people want in a kava. No disputes from me on that. It's a very different kava than something like a Kelai or Borogoru. Still, it has its place.

I may still expand the kava line after our rebrand. Maybe after Forney's new facility is done we can reengage with them. They are a little out there and hard to work with, but if they can keep the quality consistent it might be worth it. I would love to release a Kelai that people would get strong mood boosts from, like I do with good Kelais. We've also done some work on supercritical CO2 extracts of kava, and I have one that I really like from one of our suppliers. It's super expensive, though, so I have not pulled the trigger yet. I am also still worried about the consistency in their sourcing of the raw materials. We also had our card processor try to make us drop kava last year. We pushed back, and were able to get them to stand down. However, adding more inebriating kavas might bring that issue up again. For some reason we always seem to have to deal with BS other vendors don't, so we err on the side of caution a lot of the time.