What Is a Kava Drink?
A kava drink is water and the root of Piper methysticum, a pepper plant from the South Pacific. The root is ground and steeped, and the liquid that comes out is the drink. People in Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Samoa have been drinking it socially for roughly three thousand years. It contains no alcohol.
See Our BottlesThe Four Forms You'll Actually Run Into
"Kava drink" covers four fairly different things. They are all the same plant. They are not the same experience, and the gap between them is mostly a question of how much work you want to do.
The traditional bowl
Fresh or dried root, pounded and then kneaded through a cloth strainer in cold water until the water turns the colour of milky tea. Served from a communal bowl in a half coconut shell. This is kava as it is drunk in the Pacific, and it is as much a social ritual as a drink.
Authentic · hard to findA kava bar
The same preparation, behind an American counter. There are now more than 300 kava bars across the United States, the earliest of them opened in Fort Lauderdale in 2003. You order a shell, you get a pineapple chunk to chase it, and you stay a while.
Social · if one is near youPowder you prepare yourself
You buy ground root, knead it in water for ten or fifteen minutes, strain it, and drink what comes through. Cheapest per serving by some distance. Also the messiest, and the strength of what you end up with is genuinely a guess unless you weigh everything.
Cheapest · most workBottled, ready to drink
The extraction is already done and the result is measured. You pour a shot and you are finished. This is what we make: noble kava, water extracted, 300 mg of kavalactones in every 44 ml serving, with a lab report for the batch in your hand.
Consistent · no preparationWhat a Kava Drink Tastes Like
Honestly? Earthy. Peppery, a little bitter, and unmistakably like something that came out of the ground, because it did. Traditional preparations lean hardest into that, and most people describe their first shell as muddy water with an attitude. It grows on you faster than you would expect.
Your lips and tongue will go slightly numb within a few seconds. That surprises everybody the first time and it is completely normal. Kavalactones are mild local anaesthetics, so a tingling mouth is simply the sign that there is real kava in the glass. We wrote about the chemistry behind that in what kavalactones actually are.
Flavoured bottled kava exists mostly to soften that first impression. Our Signature blend is built around orange for exactly that reason; Pure Canvas leaves the flavour alone so you can put it in something else.
How Much Kava Is Actually in a Drink
The number that matters is kavalactones: the active compounds in the root, measured in milligrams per serving. Everything else is packaging.
A useful filter when you are comparing kava drinks: if a brand calls itself strong or extra strength but will not tell you the milligrams per serving, it has not told you anything at all. Ask for the number, then ask for the third-party lab report that backs it up.
Not All Kava Is Drinking Kava
This is the one thing worth knowing before you buy anything. Kava cultivars are sorted into noble and tudei. Noble varieties are the ones Pacific islanders have selected over centuries for daily drinking. Tudei, named "two-day" for how long the after-effects linger, is higher in the heavier kavalactones and is not recommended for consumption. Reputable vendors do not sell it.
Tudei is cheaper to grow, which is precisely why it turns up in products that compete on price. There is no way to tell by looking. The only real answer is a certificate of analysis from a lab that neither you nor the seller employs. Our full explanation is in noble vs. tudei kava, and every batch we have ever bottled is posted on our lab results page.
How to Drink One
Two approaches, and the only real difference is how quickly it arrives and how much you enjoy the trip.
Straight
Pour 1.5 oz, drink it in one go, chase it with juice or a piece of fruit. Fastest route: most people notice something around the fifteen minute mark. This is how it is done in a nakamal, minus the coconut shell.
Start with one. Wait 30 minutes before deciding.
Mixed
The same 1.5 oz into juice, coconut water, a smoothie, or a proper cocktail. Slower to come on because it is diluted, and considerably nicer to drink. Pineapple and mango are the classic pairings for a reason: the acidity cuts the earthiness.
One warning worth repeating: a lot of people feel very little the first time they drink kava, and conclude it does not work on them. That is common enough to have a name, reverse tolerance, though the evidence for it is honestly better described as plausible than proven. Either way, give it three or four sessions before you write it off. What to expect the first time covers the rest.
Why People Drink Kava Instead
Nearly everyone who buys kava from us arrived at it the same way: they wanted something to hold at seven in the evening that was not a beer. Kava has been the drink of choice for exactly that social slot in the Pacific for millennia: you sit down, you pass a bowl round, you talk for two hours.
What it is not is alcohol with a different label. It does not taste like it, it does not behave like it, and it does not leave you the same way in the morning. Whether that trade is a good one depends entirely on what you wanted from the drink in the first place, which is the argument we lay out properly in kava vs alcohol: an honest comparison.
Our Two Kava Drinks
Same noble kava, same 300 mg per serving, same 750 ml bottle. The only difference is whether we flavoured it for you.
Signature
Bright orange over the top of the kava. The one to start with if you have never had kava before and would rather it tasted like a drink.
$59.90 $44.90
Pure Canvas
Unflavoured, so it disappears into whatever you mix it with. Built for cocktails, and for the bartenders who kept asking us for it.
$59.90 $44.90
Common Questions
What is a kava drink made of?
Water and the root of Piper methysticum, a pepper plant native to the South Pacific. The root is ground and steeped in water, and the liquid that comes out is the drink. Everything else in a kava drink is flavour or dilution.
Is a kava drink alcoholic?
No. Kava contains no alcohol. It is water extracted from a root, which is why it is often served in places that do not serve alcohol at all, and why people reach for it as an alcohol alternative.
Are kava drinks legal in the United States?
Yes. Kava is legal to buy and drink in the United States, where it is sold as a food and dietary ingredient, and there are more than 300 kava bars operating across the country. Some other countries restrict it. The United Kingdom is one, which is why we do not ship there.
How is a bottled kava drink different from kava powder?
The extraction is already done. With powder you knead the root in water yourself for ten to fifteen minutes, strain it, and accept that the strength of the result is a guess. A bottled kava drink has been extracted, measured and lab tested before it reaches you, so a serving is the same every time.
What is the strongest kava drink?
Strength in kava means kavalactones, measured in milligrams per serving. A brand that advertises itself as strong without publishing that number has not told you anything. Ask for the milligrams per serving and a third-party certificate of analysis that backs it up.
Keep Reading
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Kava vs alcohol: an honest comparison
What actually changes when you swap the evening drink, including the parts that are worse.
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First time trying kava? What to expect
How much to pour, how long to wait, and what the first evening is really like.
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The rise of kava bars across America
How a Fort Lauderdale storefront turned into three hundred of them.