Some time ago friends returned from a trip to Java. They brought back some kava kava powder. They made a hot tea, which I found quite refreshing in the 104º Las Vegas summer heat. They thought it strange that I didn’t feel any ‘effects’. (I’ve read that boiling destroys whatever it is that kava kava is supposed to do for you.) I really liked the taste.
Do you drink kava kava?
I’m Canadian. I’m not allowed. 
In Sydney you can buy Kava in shops as the powder. You need to drink a bit of it before the effects take on. More like drinking wine than spirits. But then your mouth becomes numb and you become uncoordinated - a bit like alcohol.
Based on your description, it appears you have been given something else. Terms like “refreshing” and “really liked the taste” are a bit of a give away. Kava tastes like bitter, cold, muddy water. Maybe heating it up makes a difference.
A popular TV sports show, shot in front of a live audience recently had the hosts drinking kava throughout the show. As the night progressed the hosts became more and more uncoordinated and their speech slurring.
I have not had enough of it to effect me other than having the numb mouth, beer being my drug of choice.
Wasn’t it guarana you drank, instead of kava-kava? Guarana seems to have a pleasant taste.
In the Netherlands, you can buy guarana in both smartshops and health-shops, but kava-kava only in smart-shops. (Smart-shops, in the Netherlands, are shops which sell legal highs, like mushrooms, herbal psychedelics and herbal ernrgydrinks.)
I’ve tried both. Guarana seemed like a mild version of coffee, with a slightly more “clear” feeling. All very subtle. But I don’t like coffee, so I didn’t drink it anymore.
Kava-kava I must have tried as ingredient in some mix, but I can’t recall any effects, pleasant or otherwise.
I’m sure it was kava, since my hosts bought it specifically because they wanted kava. It was a little bitter, and sort of ‘muddy tasting’. That is, ‘earthy’. I like strong black coffee, and I’ve been known to have shots of wheat grass straight. Seems I tend to like tastes that some people don’t. I’ve looked at a couple of sites since I posted, and apparently one of the effects is mild euphoria. Maybe that’s what I took as ‘refreshing’? And the boiling water probably made it taste different. Since it’s meant to be brewed cold, I suspect that that’s why I didn’t feel any numbing sensation.
A friend of my husband was in Fiji a while ago, and ended up going to a party with the owner of his hostel, and drinking a lot of the stuff.
Now, this guy is an Irishman, a heavy drinker and someone who is extrememly well aquainted with certain illegal herbal substances.
His verdict- it tasted like mud, and he wouldn’t do it again because it freaked him out.
Make of that what you will.
Kava does not extract well in hot water - like marshmallow root, it extracts much better in cold or room-temperature water. You also need to take quite a bit of it - much more than a teaball’s worth - for it to have any acute effect. Whatever effects you felt were likely the euphoric effects of hanging out with friends having a good time - which is not to be underrated.
Kava is a terrific anti-anxiety herb when used in small, regular doses. In higher “recreational” doses it’s very much like alcohol. It does indeed numb the tongue (in fact I use it in my herbal sore throat spray for that very reason). Drink enough of it, and your legs will also go numb, and then stop working. We call it “kava legs” - people will just sort of crumple where they stand and fall over, laughing (or they freak out. Takes all kinds) It slurs speech (perhaps this part is exacerbated by the numb tongue bit) and helps to ease inhibitions, again like alcohol.
It’s not a “high” or a stimulant or a hallucinogen. “Mild euphoric” is about as far as I’d go. It also tastes like ass.
:smack: Fiji is where my friends went. Not Java.
Never tried the tea, but I once bought a bottle of gelcaps filled with kava kava extract. The woman at the health food store said she’d used them as an aid to stop smoking, and implied that she had gotten a buzz from taking them.
They were brown, “earthy”-smelling (as Johnny L.A. mentioned)-- kind of a vitaminlike odor. The only effect I got from them was a queasy feeling in my stomach.
I assume it wouldn’t have become a traditional intoxicant in the South Pacific if it didn’t have some effect on someone. I recall reading (somewhere) speculation that the mode of preparation is important—having village women chew the root and spit out the pulp before making the tea, due to the enzymes in the saliva or something.
I’m not much into the communal mastication thing, though, so I’ve pretty much given up on kava.
The traditional method of preparation does not involve chewing it first. But you may be on to something. Traditionally, one takes a very large leaf, splits it down the center, then places chunks of fresh kava root in the slit. The leaf is wrapped up around itself and then you beat the snot out of the kava with a rock. After a time, you wring out the leaf (often with large ones, two people do this step - one on each end) and drink the resulting thick mucilagenous (That’s Latin for “snot-like”) goo that slowly drips out of it. You drink about a cup of the goo.
Does something in the leaf potentiate the kava? Possibly. Does fresh root work better than dried powdered root? Very likely. Do they drink a whole lot more than a couple of capsules worth? Undoubtedly. (Average per capita consumption is 1 cup per day.) Do Western people tend to romanticize and exoticize traditional herbals, expecting the next MDMA, when we’re really looking at the next coffee? Abso-freaking-lutely.