Has anyone here tried real Kava Kava before?

Hello people. How are all of you tonight?

I just scored a half kilo of primo fresh powdered Kava root from Hawaii. This is my first time to do it. Drank a glass about an half hour ago. It looks like muddy water, and tastes kind of like a slightly aeromatic sawdust. Right now my tongue, throat, and some of my face is numb. I'm feeling very relaxed.

Has anyone here had experience with some good kava? Just curious if there are any fellow kava drinkers here?

Like anything else it can be bad for you if you take too much. Chewing the leaves is pretty good too.

seemed to work pretty well....only fine powder left in the mix. Got any good stories to tell?

:crazy:

I wouldn't be doing it all the time as poster #3 points out.

I've had kava before. The most I've ever had in one sitting is about three cups, and I know what you mean by the numbness. It also sent me running to the bathroom to pee. I'm assuming it was good kava since it was in Tonga. In fact, I think I still have a kilo or two in the cupboard...

I know long-time kava drinkers can have plenty of health troubles - it was described to me as burning holes in stomach, liver, throat, etc... Also, for new drinkers I've heard that big doses can send you praying to the toilet.

One more warning - driving under the influence will get you in trouble in CA and Australia, and probably anywhere else if you get caught.

Cheers!

i feeling kinda warm and fuzzy all over now, but i can still think very clearly.

havent been to the toilet yet lol!

fun stuff so far. me likey.

I haven't had any in far too long! In Honolulu the prepared drink can be had at an 'awa bar (the name "kava kava" comes from elsewhere in the Pacific) called the Hale Noa, on Kapahulu Ave. not far from the back end of Waikiki.

Any reports of liver toxicity you may have heard come from unscrupulous European packagers who mixed kava/'awa leaf in with the root. It has been known for centuries in the Pacific that the leaf can be toxic. Stick with the root and you'll be fine.

i read that somewhere as well...that the stems and leaves are hepatoxic, but the root isnt.

are you in hawaii? do they mix it with anything there?

one aimed at malihini (visitors), I believe, contains coconut.

http://www.halenoa.com

looks like a cool place to go and relax....

did some Googling and apparently there is only one Kava Bar in USA....in florida.

http://www.nakava.com/

i bet a place like that would go over pretty big in a place like Austin where i'm at.

The health problems that I heard about were straight from Tongans in Tonga and I'm sure they were not using the leaves.

On King Street near the Kapalama post office, Diamond Head of the post office on the Makai side of the street, there is a Tongan 'Kalapu' were you can get kava.

well i never planned to abuse it or anything. i wonder if it is worse or better than the effects of alcohol on the liver?

on Waikiki at the Lagoon Tower, Hilton Hawaiian Village -- we had an SUV and went EVERYWHERE with our six guests!

I will put it in a file for a try-out next time we're there.

Thanks for the link, KamaAina.

I'll use my SEMI-Hawaiian name with you.

It's "Kapuka" -- a nickname made up by someone whom I used to know. "KAPU" means "forbidden" but don't know about the total name.

Kapuka sounds cool. I like it. Do you know what "Kala" means in hawaiian?

i was hoping someone could answer what "Kala" means. That is a friend of mine's name, and her father said it was a hawaiian name. But he never said what it meant.

Good luck! :)

hehe just messing with ya. So kapuka means "forbidden island?"

"Kapu" means "forbidden" but "puka" means "hole" Ka-puka

by that name was a MARRIED man -- well -- you can put two and two together as well as I can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or some other one?

It was the only reference to a kapuka that I could find.

The volcanic activity of the Hawaiian Islands have created a situation whereby for example a, a large piece of forest with recent volcanic activity now can be cut into two or three or more patches of forest which are sort of islands of vegetation that are surrounded by a sea of lava and this is what we're in right here a kapuka and these kapukas create situations where populations of (most species) are subjected to small population sizes.



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hawaii/kaneshiro1.html

"These socks got pukas in 'em..." Then again, the "puka shell" (any shell with a natural "puka" in it) is highly prized, especially if it is from the island of Ni'ihau off Kaua'i, where it is the island's emblem (too dry there to have a floral emblem as other islands do).

Edit: A more figurative reading of "ka puka" -- and Hawaiians are really big on this kind of stuff -- would be "that which is in the middle of everything".

for me -- a whirling dervish of a female who still does a lot of things she used to -- but a whole HECK of a lot more!

Thanks for that. It's been more than fifty years since the fella gave me that name -- he certainly wasn't Hawaiian and had no knowledge of the language -- but somehow, it has stuck in my mind.

Ni'ihau, the Forbidden Island. Does anyone really know how people conduct themselves there? Privately owned, access by invitation only. What has been written or said -- or known -- about it?

And you say it's dry! -- must be like the area on the Big Island near Waimea -- dry and comfortable, at least for people like me who like altitude and the cooling comfort it brings.

Peace to you, KamaAina. Maybe I can shake your hand or give you a hug sometime in the future.

Radio_Lady in Oregon (and timeshare owner at the Hilton Hawaiian Village)

Thank you so much. How exciting!

"She who is in the middle of everything -- with a forbidden hole..."

(Um-m -- mods, please don't lock this as a sex thread.)

and i would like to say i still feel warm and fuzzy.

edit: i finished off the entire large bowl now, and whoo, i definitely am feeling something. I got a nice warm buzz going, feel total relaxed, and I can't stop talking or typing. The back of my neck is numb now.

:crazy:

that one of kava's numerous effects is a local anesthesia similar to novocaine.

also.....



Kava: Nature's Answer to Stress, Anxiety, and Insomnia. Hyla Cass M.D.

from it. I must not have had the real thing or something, because nothing happened. I kept waiting for it, but it didn't happen.

some people have to do it a few times before they get any effects.

All I know is that this stuff i got from hawaii is definitely potent stuff.

man, kava is great! i'm excited because i really want to stop using alcohol, and now i've found something else that i can use to relax.

:bounce:

in Fiji. It's part of the ceremony put on for the guests.
I remember it numbing my teeth, gums and throat. No other effects but I only had one cup.
Drugs have always scared me. Even if they're natural.

Other surfers there drank plenty and they just seemed to become very calm. Almost like zombie calm. It was weird.

thats funny.

did any of the other surfers drink it before surfing? i hear in low doses it gives you better muscle control and coordination.

GIMME MY ZOMBIE JUICE!

:crazy:

Couple of guys did report major hangovers though.
They were also drinking so I'm not sure which contributed how much.

i bet they were absolutely ripped. :evilgrin: not supposed to mix the two.

at the drugstore. It worked (for insomnia and jitters) the first few times I took it. Made me feel calm and peaceful but still alert. Then I seemed to develop a tolerance for it and it had no effect at all. YMMV.

appetizing eh? i've already had a few bowl fulls out of there.

one day i hope to get a nice wooden bowl and some coconut shell cups.

Like drinking chamomile tea or taking a little bit of skullcap before bed. But from your post, it sounds much stronger. Does it have a narcotic effect when taken in larger doses. And is the "real" kava kava you are referring to different from he capsules they sell at natural food stores?

is much stronger than the capsules. Also, there have been reports of unscrupulous supplement makers that put in the leaves and stem, both of which can be hepatoxic.

it definitely has a narcotic like effect. (from what i've been reading it works differently than traditional narcotics) I mean, if you drink enough of it, your legs can become temporarily paralyzed. (but you are still sharp mentally, which is kinda funny in a way) :P

Never had the numbness though.

Tucker

i'm still a newbie with this stuff, but i'm feeling nothing but mellowness. :)

but I do know that the fresh root powder in capsule form that I used to make stopped a panic disorder smack dab in its tracks.

I tried that before letting my GP put me on Xanax or Clonapin. Really glad, too!

it's a shame that so many doctors are afraid to mention herbal remedies. They must think people will look at them as quacks or something.

Had some years ago, and it's like you said; very, very mellow buzz...