Buying Kava Direct

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently discussing the best ways for our customers to figure out how to get the best kava online.  This is clearly a very important issue, as there are more and more kava vendors appearing online every day, and it can be tricky to figure out which are providing high quality, potent and safe kava, and which are providing low quality and potentially dangerous kava.  In the spirit of this discussion, we thought it might be good to discuss the benefits of buying kava direct from a farm or producer.  This is, in fact, one of the best ways to ensure that you receive high quality kava that is as fresh and high quality as possible!

To begin with, buying kava direct from a farm means that you are purchasing your kava directly from farmers who have probably been growing kava for some time.  If you find a website that offers kava direct from a farm, they will probably be able to provide you with a great deal of information about how their kava is grown, harvested and processed.  You want to make sure that you are purchasing kava that is made from 90% lateral roots and 10% underground roots, and that contains NO stems or leaves.  If you’ve ever heard about someone experiencing liver damage from taking kava, it is because they consumed kava that was prepared using parts of the plant other than the roots.  The lateral roots are also more potent, and if a company is using primarily lateral roots then you can know that they are harvesting their kava sustainably, which is much better for the environment.  When you buy kava direct from a farm, they will definitely be able to tell you how they harvested the plant and what composition of the roots makes up their kava, so this is a big benefit towards getting the best quality and the safest kava.

When you buy kava direct from the farm, it is also much easier to determine which strain of kava you are receiving.  Many of the newer online kava vendors are sourcing their kava from many different farms and blending them together, meaning that they have no idea what strains are actually going in to the kava.  Ideally, you want to purchase kava that is from only one strain, which will be safer and more consistent in its effects.  You also want to make sure that your kava is one of the older, ‘noble’ strains which have been used by humans for thousands of years and which we know are safe.  These ‘noble’ strains include Mahakea and Borogu, among others, and these are the ones that you want to make sure you work with.  Newer hybrid strains, such as Tue Dai kava have not been studied much, and although they are potent, it is possible that they create unsafe alkaloid combinations that can actually cause harm.  When you buy kava direct from a farm, you will be able to determine easily which strain you are purchasing!

Finally, buying kava direct from a farm is ideal because farmers are more likely to care and respect the kava that they are harvesting themselves, and because when you buy kava direct from a farm the turnover rate is very high.  Kava farms sell huge quantities of kava to distributors and retailers all over the world, so they don’t keep product on the shelf for very long.  This means that the kava you receive direct from the farm will be very fresh!

If you are still curious about the virtues of buying kava direct form the farm, you can always check out this new website which contains TONS of information on the benefits of getting your kava in this way. After reading through that site, and researching for this article, we’re definitely going to be buying all of our kava direct from the farm!