When I first gathered my kava making materials together – a sieve,
a big stainless-steel bowl, and a scattering of half-coconut shells – I glanced
suspiciously at the bag of glorious root that I had received from Bula Kava
House (BKH) a few days before. It was full of the most finely-milled kava I had
ever set my eyes upon. In fact, the grind was so fine that I decided to put it
off one more night before consulting with BKH’s manager. I was afraid that I
was about to brew up a gallon of instant kava, and I had three kava newbies
that I was kneading for. I thought it was a risky idea to accidentally brew
them a Kava purely composed of instant kava! In the meantime, I decided to have
a go with Melo Melo (that’s a story for another day) and my co-workers and I
drifted off into a Phish session while we slowly melted into the night.[1]
What I essentially asked BKH was: “are you sure you didn’t
put the wrong kava in the wrong bag? Because I’m pretty sure you accidentally
sent me a half kilo of instant kava.” This wouldn’t have been a horrible thing.
Imagine a half kilo of instant kava! You could get krunked every day for a few
months. But fortunately (or unfortunately) this wasn’t the case. It indeed was
Fu’u. I wasn’t entirely convinced this was the case, but I decided to reassemble
my kava chef station once again and get to work on this dusty, fine-scented
powder.
Fu’u is, as I have said, very finely ground. It has very
mild notes in powder form and, at least in an olfactory sense, is very enticing
compared to some of the more pungent stuff out there. It resembles a combination
of Fijian, Tongan, and perhaps even Solomon Islands kava. It is actually a “Noble”
Tongan variety, meaning that it is reserved for Tongan nobility (of which there
are still many, as Tonga is one of the world’s last monarchies). As Fu’u is
already so well-ground, kneading it is quite a simple and relaxing exercise. (As
if any dimension of the holy root experience needed to be any more relaxing!)
It is surprisingly different from the Tongan varieties provided by some of the
other Kava vendors out there, such as Nakamal at Home’s Tongan or Kava by Rex’s
“Tongan Pride” (probably my least favorite Tongan variety available on-line.
Now, we all know that I absolutely love Nakamal at Home’s “Solomon
Kava.” It tastes good, feels amazing, is easy to make, and even looks good. So let’s start with the
taste of Fu’u. It is one of the most delightful kavas I have ever tasted. It
has a full flavor, a milky-almond base, a coconut-milk-like texture, and it
lingers on for a while after a generous swallow. Its numbing effects are
medium-range, and that always throws me off (but this is a personal obsession
of mine – that overwhelming tingling that a Papua New Guinean kava will produce
is like a swim in a shimmering pool at the frothy base of a tropical waterfall
for me). So yes, Fu’u tastes lovely and is brilliantly easy to drink. Even kava
newcomers will likely find themselves in agreement with this. Or at least they
will not make some asinine comment about kava tasting like murky pond water that
has been infused with pine needle tea.
If I had to sum up the feeling of Fu’u, I would use one
word: Euphoric. One could say the same of Solomon Islands kava (perhaps this is
some kind of secret Tongan-Solomon hybrid?) or some of the other Tongan kavas
out there. But Fu’u leans closer to the Solomon Islands camp. It inspires heavy
eyelids (not to be mistaken with tiredness) and creative, laugh-inducing
conversations. My co-workers and I had a bizarre session of grabbing books and
reading random paragraphs out-of-context. It started out as a way of judging
different writers’ abilities via randomly sampled snippets of their books
(stick with me here) but then devolved into a kind of free-for-all session of
blissful weirdness and inspiration. I’m not saying here that this kava is
disorienting or overwhelming. It is fundamentally relaxing with that extra edge
of stony euphoria. This is where it diverges from Solomon kava and leans more
towards its country of origin, Tonga, with all of its pleasurable, social, feel-good
essence. Whereas Solomon kava would compel you to crawl off into some cave and
ponder the nature of the universe, this kava will make you want to repeatedly
call for another “bula!” and laugh the night away.
Flavor - 9/10
Effects (Mind) - 8.5/10
Effects (Body) - 7.5/10
Strength - Medium Medium-Lasting
Fu'u 8.3/10
[1] My
co-workers and I all live together in a compound in the Ethiopian highlands, in
case you were wondering why I was hanging out with my co-workers.
