[numanist]

Quote:

“ALCOHOL IS SO 2014. TRY KAVA,” suggests a sandwich board on Tenth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, in the East Village. Whether by design or not, this block has become a retro-futurist downtown cornucopia of health, wellness, and New Agey philosophy. It is home to, among other establishments, a lush and gaudy store that peddles healing crystals; the beloved Russian and Turkish baths; a store called the Molecule Project, which sells artisanal tap water squeezed of any impurity; and a place named Body Evolution, which boasts the “largest and most fully equipped GYROTONIC® studio in Manhattan.” And then there is Kavasutra, the block’s newest addition, specializing in drinks made from the root of a South Pacific-originated plant called kava. Designed like a real bar but booze-free, Kavasutra is a New York City experiment that asks its patrons to imagine the possibility of a cosmopolitan social life without alcohol.

This is an especially tall order. If you live in a city and are not a hermit, chances are your life necessitates a lot of drinking. Even if you are exceptionally self-disciplined and can limit yourself to one or two drinks, chances are you are still subjecting yourself to the risk of a hangover on a routine basis. Drinking is meant to be a ritualized opportunity to unwind, but it also produces the unintended stress of dealing with the side effects of booze. Unsurprisingly, alcohol has a profound and documented cumulative effect on work: a 2015 report from the C.D.C. estimated that drinking (and subsequent hangovers) created a drop in productivity that cost the U.S. economy ninety billion dollars in 2010.

In the midst of any socio-professional drinking session, you often find yourself completing some crude cost-benefit analysis: How many drinks can I consume tonight without functioning poorly tomorrow? How can I loosen up right now without sacrificing tomorrow’s daytime productivity? Kava bars—of which there are now two in New York City—exist, ostensibly, to hack this problem. Kava drinks, used for centuries in ceremonial contexts throughout the South Pacific, are created by grinding the root of the plant into a powder and mixing it with water. Kava is legal and unregulated, and can be ordered online in the form of pills, which makes it popular among curious thrill-seeking college kids and vape connoisseurs. Its advertised effects are about the same as a cocktail: kava is a sedative used to relieve anxiety and relax the muscles. But, unlike alcohol, kava allegedly doesn’t interfere with any cognitive abilities, and, if you hydrate properly, it won’t give you a hangover.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultura...y-new-york

Has anyone tried this drink before? I've heard it's not the most thirst quenching, but I've heard it's a better alternative to drinking alcohol - especially considering the risk of hangovers.

[username]

In before Kava gets banned by the DEA.

[Kona]

(05-27-2010 11:11 PM)Kona Wrote:  

I drink kava.

Chewing it gives you the biggest buzz, but hurts your teeth.

It's like the anti-coffee. Drink it if you have time to chill. If you drink it in the afternoon, don't plan on doing anything that night. It makes you sleepy. I like to drink it with a girl in a hot tub and smoke a joint. As easy as it is, I never mix it right. My sister is married to a Samoan, and she's figured out how to make it real good. I usually get it from her. The tradition in most places where it's good (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Hawaii) is that it's made by women but only drank by men. They'll do it, but it's against the norm for Polynesian Girls to drink it.

It will make your mouth, elbows and knees kind of numb. You'll feel really relaxed. It works great on girls. It gets them all goosebumpy. The first few times they drink it it can make them pretty goofy, so watch out. Your gonna have relaxed, slow sex after some 'awa. You'll be to tired for harder porno style banging, but it's ok because you won't be in that frame of mind anyway. Kava is for lovers.

Most of the places that serve it are the healthy food spots. The good kava stand on The North Shore sells those acai deals, and stuff like that. They're good places for swooping healthy organic girls. The drink itself is good for socializing, and chicks can get real talky. You want to eat some fruit before and after you drink it. Watch a chick eat a mango after she just had a bowl, and she looks like it's the best mango she's ever had.

The best kind is called Mo'i, and it's almost like shroom tea, but without the trip. You get a real good connection factor, like you do with mushrooms when you're with a girl.

There is a big problem with kava and kava bars, though.

Like I said, most places that serve it the right way are ok. Even with those, the people mixing it are doing it with their bare hands, which is the tradition. It's also mixed with lots of plain tap water. The kava itself won't hurt, but the crap on the dirtbag mixing it's hands or in the tap water might hurt folks with sensitive stomachs.

Problem two is the shadiness of some kava bars. They attract some real shitbags and dirty hippies. Kava is great for bringing down crackheads and meth users. Those folks tend to hang around kava bars. Lots of Island people smoke ice aka crystal meth with their kava. They get pretty creepy. If you're at a shady kava bar and you hear people talking about "batu" you should leave. Lots of ex-users are into kava. Heroin addicts drink it.

A lot of Asian hostess bars have bottles of kava. Don't drink that stuff. Don't drink it at a cockfight, illegal casino or Asian massage parlor either. They cut it with bad shit that will screw you up.

I've had kava in Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, and ten years ago I know I had it in Rio. Most of the time it's ben straight and traditional, but I've gotten the cut shit, and just a little bit f*cked me up good. You gotta be careful. Half the bars I've been to that sell kava, have been the shady ones. Usually the casino is down the hall and the dogfight is behind the place.

It has lead me to swoop a lot of hippie chicks. Once though, I got a dirty one who was a non-shaver. The armpit hair was more than I could handle, and I didn't want to have sex with her. She was still pretty attractive it was just weird seeing all that hair all over her.

Here's a picture of a guy mixing it, and an example of the type of girl that hang around the kava circle:


This picture was from some kava festival in Hawaii. She's bangable for sure, but you can tell she's just kind of out there.

Have fun with it, just be careful.

Aloha!

This I copied from the thread that calls it kava kava.

The only difference between when this one got written is that I don't mess with that stuff any more.

It wears on your stomach after a while.

And if you are going to get into it, be careful.

I doubt at the healthy spots, but heroin and method people love that stuff.

Aloha!

[MrFish]

It's already banned in the EU apparently, due to the risk to public health. It's said to be liver toxic.

But then again, so is alcohol. I'd have to compare studies for both alcohol and kava where their health risks are examined. I won't take a government's' word for it and also won't believe the newest hype.

I'm very interested in a plant based alternative to alcohol - have yet to try kratom, but definitely will soon - but alas this doesn't seem to be it. Kona's description of the effects also don't sound alluring. Downers are definitely not my thing anymore.

[RoastBeefCurtains4Me]

I've tried it a number of times. I was on probation with a requirement to not drink. I'd go to a kava bar in my city. I also got some mail order from a place in Hawaii.

It does give you a buzz, but I don't prefer it over alcohol. I've also tried kratom. They had it at the same kava bar. I would actually do both together, then go have a beer. I could pass a piss test with one beer, and the beer hits a lot harder after some kava.

If you're using it as a substitute for alcohol due to something like probation, it's better than nothing. However, unless you're trying to quit drinking, alcohol is better. If you are trying to quit drinking, I'd recommend full sobriety.

[nmmoooreland20]

Tried Kava tea (Yogi brand). Didn't do anything. Tho not sure if that counts as the real shit.