Keeping it Traditional

A seated kava circle at Karuna Kava Bar - Traditional Kava in Action

An argument for water based traditional kava preparation and consumption

When I first encountered kava, it felt too good to be true. After struggling with alcohol for so long, the notion that anything could so effectively help me conquer my destructive drinking habits seemed naive. I harbored skepticism, judgment, and even dismissed the tradition of kava drinking prior to my initiation.

Then came my inaugural sip of kava—a magical experience. Waves of calm and relaxed well-being washed over me. I felt safe, at ease, welcomed—like I had found my home. I was home. And I found community within kava, a group of people who were seeking healthier habits like I was. This connection and community was instantly helpful in my fight for sobriety.

Naturally, I delved into this new world of kava. And what a world it was! My introduction was via concentrated kava extract—an intense, creamy yellow liquid with an acrid taste that had to be forced down, its palatability nearly intolerable. It tasted like chemicals, perhaps due to the solvents used in extraction, or simply because concentrated kava inherently causes a rebellion of the tastebuds.

While the effects were pleasant, they could swiftly veer from bliss to extreme nausea with kava extracts. Hanging out at the local kava bar, I noticed patrons regularly vomiting after one two many bowls of the milky mixture. I soon experienced this firsthand after indulging in one too many bowls. Moreover, heavy consumption led to severe skin dryness and dehydration, prompting me to ponder the potential dark side of this newfound pastime.

The kava bar also offered traditional, water-prepared kava, yet few imbibed as its effects were relatively mild and it wasn't cheap, either. For over a year, I failed to grasp the essence of "kava drinking" in its true form, mistakenly believing that chugging down those creamy yellow, gnarly kava concentrate drinks sufficed.

Then, through serendipity, I landed a job in the kava industry. I began to learn the basic art of crafting kava in the traditional manner—using noble kava root and water, devoid of solvents or chemical processes, kneading and massaging the root strongly and patiently in a strainer bag. Shifting towards traditional kava, I found myself enjoying its effects far more.

Then I began to explore various kava varieties by ordering medium grind kava root from Kalm With Kava, Cactus Kava, Art of Kava and Nakamal at Home. Night after night, I experimented with different blends, falling deeply in love with the tradition of kava drinking. Each variety possessed a unique depth and complexity, endlessly fascinating due to its origin, effects, and flavor profiles. It was a Eureka moment—an awakening to the potential of kava, both for me and others.

A traditional Fijian Tanoa

The effects of drinking traditional water-prepared kava differed significantly from those of the extracted variety served at the bar. Each type of kava offered a distinct and predictable effect. Trying Bir Kar for the first time, I experienced its relaxing euphoria without clouding my mind. Kelai, on the other hand, provided an uplifting, cheerful, and clear-headed feeling.

And the flavor... It was far superior! Most first-time kava drinkers might find traditional water-prepared kava somewhat harsh in flavor. It certainly doesn't align with the sweetness of typical American drinks, with its earthy, bitter, woody, and sometimes straw forward flavor. However, these traditional medium grind kavas prepared in water were much more enjoyable than the extracts I had been consuming, and were far more enjoyable. Some even boasted a pleasant taste, like Bir Kar, which has a nutty, wholesome flavor that complemented its wonderful effects.

I quickly learned that traditional kava not only offered more enjoyable effects and better taste but also didn't induce the same level of nausea or skin dryness as the extracted varieties. During this time, I delved deeper into researching traditional kava practices and its cultural significance across the South Pacific Islands. What many of us were treating as a mere "legal high" held immense cultural and ceremonial value.

There was a profound beauty in this practice—in its ceremonies, reverence, culture, and connection to the past. Kava wasn't just a beverage; it was a tool that connected Pacific communities and Pacific Islanders worldwide to their heritage and history.

I couldn't help but wonder why so few in my circle of kava drinkers were experiencing this depth of experience. The tradition of kava was far more intricate and fascinating than the local scene suggested. People were missing a crucial aspect of the kava experience, which, once grasped, opened the mind to its joys and benefits. The American mindset of "stronger must be better" had led to a fundamental misunderstanding of this plant and its offerings. I have an example to help differentiate the two in our minds. Kava vs Kava Extract

The Coffee Example

Consider this scenario: You stroll into your local coffee shop and order a coffee. The barista beams, gets to work, and presents you with your "coffee." It's milky white, but you ordered it black. "I'm sorry, there seems to have been a misunderstanding. I just wanted a regular coffee."

"Well, that is coffee. We've taken acetone and processed all our coffee beans with it. Then, we let the acetone evaporate, allowing us to collect this 'coffee' extract. It's super potent caffeine, the strongest! Absolutely the best! You'll love it! Give it a try! Don't worry, it's been purified!"

You take a sip of your "coffee," and it tastes like chemicals. Your heart races uncontrollably, and you feel the urge to retch. An intense anxiety grips you. This coffee is dreadful, and you fear you might have a heart attack.

"That'll be $12 for your coffee. The ambulance ride will be $2399."

Of course, this is a ludicrous example. It's not meant to suggest that coffee is dangerous. In fact, a good cup of coffee can be a delightful experience. However, caffeine can be lethal in high doses. Many can attest that consuming too much caffeine at once can make you feel terrible. The experience is much more enjoyable when the beverage is made from natural ingredients—just coffee beans and hot water. A smaller dose of caffeine derived from drinkable coffee is far more enjoyable than a highly concentrated caffeine extract.

Moreover, the act of sipping a coffee is pleasurable. It may connect you to the moment or allow you to share a moment with a friend. Perhaps there are intangible benefits and joys to drinking coffee that you can't quite pinpoint. You just love coffee. But if a coffee enthusiast snorts a line of caffeine powder, they probably won't be eager to repeat that experience.

A damn dirty history of kava extracts - laitan

Liver damage was a recurring concern I encountered when I embarked on starting Karuna Kava, selling kava at markets and events. It was a refrain I heard often.

"Don't you know kava is harmful to the liver?" remarked a man sipping on vodka and soda.

"You should prioritize your health more!" admonished a woman enjoying a Pinot Gris and a chocolate croissant.

"Why bother with kava when you can have a beer?" quipped a man peddling beer.

So, why does our society misconstrue kava as detrimental to the liver while turning a blind eye to the scientifically proven dangers of alcohol?

As in many narratives, the villain in the kava liver damage story happens to be the pharmaceutical industry. In the late 1990s, a German pharmaceutical company called Lichtwer Pharma AG introduced Laitan, an acetone-derived kava lipid extract.

Of the 25 documented cases of severe liver issues attributed to "kava," all occurred within a four-year span from 1998 to 2002, and all were directly linked to acetone-extracted kava lipid extracts made from non-noble kava plant material. To be precise, they didn't even use what we typically consider "kava."

Lichtwer opted for a cheaper, fast-growing variant of the kava plant known as Palisi, which, although it can be harvested after just one year, is notorious for its unpleasant effects when consumed. Kava experts and researchers theorize that Lichtwer (acquired by Schwabe Group in 2011) took shortcuts by incorporating the entire kava plant, including its leaves and stems, into their extractions instead of just the roots.

Unfortunately, Palisi is rich in specific flavokavains that can deplete certain liver enzymes needed to break down toxic compounds, such as the ethanol found in alcoholic beverages. When your liver can't process alcohol, acetaldehyde accumulates, causing extensive damage.

In the 22 years since the Laitan Liver Disaster, over 350 kava bars have sprung up across the United States, serving kava to hundreds of thousands of individuals. Reputable kava companies distribute kava to thousands of Americans daily. Millions of people in the South Pacific and around the world consume kava regularly. Yet, there hasn't been a single liver-related incident in the United States linked to traditionally prepared kava, and there haven't been any liver events in Europe since Laitan was pulled from the market in the early 2000s.

Even modern kava extracts produced through ethanol or supercritical CO2 extraction haven't shown any evidence of liver damage. The surge in liver health concerns from 1998 to 2002 was likely due to tainted medications and a lack of warnings to consumers about the dangers of mixing them with alcohol or other liver-harming drugs.

learning from tradition

Get your kava squeezin’ muscles ready!

Traditional Preparation of Kava In Action!

In essence, our admiration for kava is profound, particularly when it's in its purest form. When a culture has honed the same method of kava production for millennia, it's likely they know what they're doing!

Like numerous cultural traditions, kava drinking has been misconstrued, misrepresented, and unfairly judged in Western society. Upon closer examination, the reality of kava is far more intricate and captivating than a mere internet search might suggest.

I've sampled kava in various forms—gummies, candies, sodas, powders, teas, extracts, and even almost tried a kava vape cartridge, although that was where I drew the line.

However, the most satisfying way to experience kava is through its traditional preparation: quality, authenticated kava root combined with pure water, squeezed by someone who loves the practice and wants to share the joy of kava with others.

You can find our meticulously crafted water-prepared noble kava products online at karunakava.com/shop and at our nonalcoholic kava bar located at 5220 N Sawyer, Garden City ID 83714! Try some kava and experience this amazing tradition yourself!

How Kava Helped Save me from alcoholism

Alcoholism is a deadly disease, and I was desperately in need of an alternative to booze when I discovered the joys of kava. Kava acts as a nondestructive alternative to alcohol, allowing me to cope with the stresses of life constructively and without creating pain in my life or the lives of others.

I love getting opportunities like this to chat with people like Joey. Joey is a great dude, and he has a great YouTube channel where he reviews kava and other alternative herbal products. This is a great chat, and I hope you enjoy the talk!

An introduction to the compassion of kava

A compassionate space

One of the first things that I noticed when I began drinking kava was that it was a very compassionate, kind beverage. It didn’t rob me of my health, money, and senses when I drank it. It didn’t make me angry, jealous, or crazy. Kava didn’t make me feel the deep shame I always felt while drinking heavily. Kava didn’t expose me to moments of public embarrassment, or lead to mental health anguish, broken bones, and hospitalizations.

You see, when I was kindly introduced to kava I was a bit of a mess. I’d been sharing a room with another dude at a sober living home in Colorado Springs, CO called the Corona House (irony). There were seven dudes packed into a four bedroom house with two bathrooms and one kitchen. This is not an immediately enjoyable situation, living with so many strangers. But when you are down and out, having a bed and a hot shower at the Corona House was way better than living on the street, which wasn’t off of the table for most of us.

I’d managed to stay sober for a while, longer than my normal 42 day record that I’d managed in rehab. At around 6 months into sobriety the house manager relapsed, and they needed a new house manager. The house manager got their own small bedroom (we called it “The Closet") and didn’t have to pay rent, which could really help a guy save up scratch to get the hell out of there. I got the gig, which included having to drug test the guys if I thought something was up, facilitate the house AA meeting, admit new guys into the house, fill out paperwork, stamp court cards, and generally make sure the house operated at a standard that was going to be conducive to recovery.

Several of us became really great friends, particularly Paul, Trevor, Jasper and I. We would stay up late drinking coffee and smoking cigs, playing Settlers of Catan Dungeons and Dragons until midnight, hackin’ sack out in the parking lot of the Corona House until 2am. It was genuinely a very happy time in my life. Despite the circumstances, we were sober and having a pretty good time being sober.

These were really great guys, and were mostly total goofballs. Especially Jasper. Jasper was our game night leader, and made these great hand-crafted cutouts for our D&D games that were super creative and well-done. Jaspers infectious laughter lifted the mood of the entire house. All of these guys were great, but Jasper, Trevor, Paul and I were always goofing off and having more fun than the rest it seemed.

A guy named James moved into the house and I immediately found him both loveable and annoying. He was eclectic, a bit of a story teller, and a major goof ball. He was also drinking this weird, brown (what looked like dirt) water that he said his naturopathic doctor prescribed for his “anxiety disorder”. We actually had a bit of an issue over it, because I was supposed to be keeping the guys in the house on the path of sobriety and recovery, and here was James with some kind of drug mud from Papua New Guinea. I decided to approach him in the kitchen and have a discussion about it with him.

“Hey man, I don’t know how I feel about you drinking that kava stuff here. It kinda seems like you’re getting f#$@ed up on it!”

”No way man! You just don’t get it, brother. You see that machine right behind you!? It makes coffee! Coffee is a drug, it’s a stimulant, and its addictive to and we make it every morning at this supposed ‘SOBRIETY HOUSE’. Kava is kinda like coffee in the other direction. It makes you relaxed and calm instead of all jacked up and strung out like the beans!”

I was a bit stumped. He had a point. It was a natural root, and he didn’t seem to be “inebriated” when he was drinking the stuff, just less bugged out and stressy.

I relapsed not too long after that encounter and lost my house manager position. As it turns out, high-dollar fancy restaurant bartending was not going to work out real well for me. I rejoined the ranks of the house as just another guy trying to sober up again. This time, my ego was pretty beat down and I was pretty low. I’d been "Captain Sobriety” and leader of the house, but then I had violated the sanctity of my station and gotten loaded again. I had let them down. I had let myself down.

This low opinion of myself has often led me back to what I define as “destructive drinking”. Uninterrupted periods pf extensive binge drinking. The night that I first tried kava, I was feeling blue, and I felt a bit like tempting fate. I wandered around downtown Colorado Springs, watching the good people drink on patios, just itching in my own skin, thirsty as mariner stuck on some wretched island. All of a sudden I arrived at a fork in the road. Before me were two options; Gin Distillery / Speak Easy to my left, “Ohana Kava Bar” on my right.

There it is again. That kava stuff. I walked into the kava bar for the first time and instantly loved the atmosphere. The place had a vibe. Everyone was drinking out of what looked like… Guacamole Bowls? I was immediately intrigued. I sat at the bar and a lovely young woman explained what kava was. I ordered a bowl. What the hell, you only live once, right? I ordered a bowl of the strongest stuff they had.

It was a kava concentrate that tasted like it could take paint off of a wall, served with a side of pineapple. I was instructed to slam it, so I chugged it down and popped that piece of pineapple in my mouth as quickly as possible. Immediately my whole mouth and throat went numb. I felt an almost immediate head change. Stress dissipated. I found myself feeling uplifted, a bit more socially interested in my surroundings. I began to have genuine, comfortable interactions with the people around me. I had another bowl. The thought of harder spirits was no longer forefront in my minds eye. This kava stuff was incredibly interesting, and I wanted to know more.

I started hanging around the kava bar a lot, picking up bits and pieces here and there, trying to figure out what this stuff was and whether or not it was sketchy. It didn’t feel sketchy. It felt like another recovery community. A weird, eclectic, ragtag conglomeration of weirdos that weren’t drinking booze (or trying not to). The regulars at the kava bar were a tight knit crew, and I was starting to feel like one of them. Ohana Kava Bar started to feel like home.

I lucked into a job at Ohana Kava Bar, and all of a sudden the interesting, bizarre world of zero-proof kava bars became my life. I loved every part of it. The people, the drinks, the teas (oh, how I love tea), the music and events and overall scene. It was funky, and fun, and friendly. It was in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, and it had all the eclectic weirdness that accompanies a bigger city in the Mountain West. This place was packed with characters, and I seemed to be at the heart of it all.

Community. It seems to blossom where ever kava plants it’s seeds. Kava brings us together, as it has brought people together for thousands of years. I found myself at the center of a thriving community of kava drinkers, and all of a sudden I became reacquainted with passion. I became driven. I had a goal. I wanted to create my own kava bar, focused on traditional water extracted kava. I became obsessed. The rest is history.

Now that Karuna Kava Bar is open, I get to witness the miracle happen. Our kava community grows everyday, and as we share our nonalcoholic social space with others I find myself growing nostalgic. Now, I’m still working late nights at the kava bar, I’m just going home to a beautiful wife and two amazing children instead of a house full of my sobriety buddies. I feel incredibly lucky to have made it into a better way of living. I also feel a deep and persistent sadness for my friends that didn’t make it. Especially my dear friend Jasper, who sadly lost the fight with addiction and depression in the spring of 2019.

If you are out there and you are struggling, it can and almost inevitably will get better if you just don’t give up. Find compassion for yourself, and do your best to access the passion that ignites your heart. Let that passion take you to great places. Your mindset will determine the outcome.

Dedicated to Jasper Kemper. We miss you buddy.