I've been here in Hawaii for quite a while but hadn't tried Kava until yesterday. We have a few Kava bars in town so I was curious and stopped in for a try.

They make it from powdered kava root and strain it through cheese cloth into lukewarm water and serve it to you in a bowl. The taste wasn't horrible but it was a bit like drinking dirty water, very earthy tasting.

It makes your mouth and throat numb at first then puts you in a relaxed state for a few hours. I enjoyed it and bought some to use at home.

Anyone else here tried it? What did you think?

No, never tried it. However, I sure would like to!

Yeah, I take it in a capsule though..I've never drank it. I've heard it's pretty funky to drink. I like it...

we don't gt much Kava in West Texas

but we do have xanax. that is pretty relaxing too

You can order the a pound of root power from this website for $40 which is pretty cheap, and there's a bunch of vids on youtube on how to prepare it

http://www.mauikava.com/prodlist.html

It's traditionally made into a drink and taken that way. I've heard to get any effect from capsules you have to take a bunch, plus you don't get the numbing effect you get from drinking it.

The drink is very earthy tasting but I didn't think it was that bad. You can add stuff to it to make it more palatable; honey, sugar, juice, etc.

Thanks, dude! Peace!!

send me some

Yeah, that's what I've been told...you do have to take a bunch of the pills but it works. I don't need the numbing affect..just gives me flashbacks of the 70's and 80's cocaine days. : )

had to google it. I never heard of Kava. But I found this



Kava Danger: possible liver disease in users! This herb has become popular because of its calming effect, but recently at least thirty cases of severe liver damage were connected to kava in Germany, so several European countries have banned the herb. The FDA has also received reports of serious reactions. It may be best to stick with chamomile tea for a calming effect and skip the kava.


--Taken from A Woman’s Guide to Good Health by Carrie Carter, M.D. Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2006. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other Web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirroried at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.

Carrie Carter, M.D., has been a primary-care physician for over fifteen years. She is an award-winning author of two books, a magazine columnist, and a national speaker, and she has appeared as a medical expert on over one hundred national and regional radio and TV programs.

Here's another article on the subject. It seems it is only dangerous if the leaves and stems are used. It's been used for centuries without ill effects when ONLY the root is used


"There has been a concerted effort on the part of pharmaceutical companies to lead the public to believe that the consumption of kava may lead to liver damage. But, it has backfired on them, as a record number of scientists came to Kava's defense and proved those claims to be false.

See our article called "Kava in a Nutshell" for a broad overview of the curious and tragic story of Kava around the world. Anyway, this claim led to many countries banning kava, or even in Germany, where the false study was conducted, which resulted in Kava being outright outlawed. This study frustrated us to no end, but we did not idly by; we, with the herbal supplement industry, launched our own counterattack on the kava liver damage claims.

We are happy to report that Germany is repealed its ban in July of 2006. There was immense pressure to have them retract the reports about liver damage, especially since numerous counter studies have been released that directly conflicts with their position. Canada, as well, although they have not lifted their ban on Kava completely, have lifted any restrictions on the importation of Kava into Canada for any private individuals. (In other words, any person can order Kava, as long as they are doing it for personal consumption and not to re-sell in a store or Kava Bar.

It is important to note that the study was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, and that the study was conducted using extraordinarily large amounts of kava. Furthermore, the kava that was used, was kava from the entire plant, and not just the root, which is the only part of the plant that is traditionally consumed. Finally, the people involved in the study were heavy drinkers, and it is far more likely that the alcohol was responsible for the liver damage rather than the kava.

Kava has been used safely for thousands of years in Hawaii, yet somehow a single study was conducted using parts of the plants our people never use, with patients who had long histories of alcohol abuse. Kava was prescribed in Germany instead of Prozac, and we speculate that it was cutting into the profits of the pharmaceutical companies, so they decided to get a lot of bad press for this plant."

That ws my conclusion also. It works great. You don't need to take it all the time, could even buy it in Walmart until not to long ago. At the same time Zanax and alot of the newr SSRI's came out. I trully beleive that all we need to heal us is here on the planet in herb, plants', yet we gone the opposite way- stopped using them or paying much attention. Alot of medications had original plant form, synthesized now. I've taken it for the nervous system, calming, relxing. Yes, it can be made into tea, originally was like most herbs, capsules (gelatin) are just as effective. No tiredness, hangover or addiction.

Kava kava builds its effects through prolonged and sustained usage and was traditionally prepared buy women who would chew the root and spit the juice and saliva into communal bowls.

This leaves me with a couple of issues....first, I can't find a woman to spit in my drink on a daily basis and secondly, I don't like to wait to get fktup so I am gonna have to just start freebasing it.