DOSE:

24 oz

oral

Kava

(liquid)

Kava: A Very Mild Experience

A kava bar recently opened in my Southern US city, and after reading about it, several of us decided to stop by and try it out. We got there right as they were closing (1230 am), so we ordered it to go. The bar is trying to be as Pacific Island-authentic as they can, so they serve it in polished coconut shells. Each shell holds about 8 ounces, and we each ordered three, a total of 24 ounces put in one big cup.

The bar keeps it pre-mixed, and it looks pretty much like coffee with milk added. The taste, however, is almost indescribably bad. 'Liquid dirt' was about as close as we could get. The bar has bowls of candy spread all around because of how bad it tastes, so we took a few handfuls with us when we left. Taking a swallow, then eating a piece of chocolate was the only thing that made ingesting this vile substance manageable.

We went to a friend's apartment, finished our kava within about 20 minutes and just settled in on the couches to watch some stupid Schwarzneggar movie, The 6th Day. No one reported any significant feelings of relaxation or euphoria. The kava was noticeable only as an having increased the fluidity of our conversations. It seemed we were all on the same wavelength, thoughts flowing freely and witty comments being made left and right.

No one experienced a come down at all, and there were no effects the next day to speak of. I did wake up with a raging headache but I think that was due more to lack of sleep and my daily dose of caffeine being way overdue than the kava.

We are planning to try it once more, this time in the beautiful setting the provided by the kava bar itself - a large conversation area, many many chairs and couches, island music playing in the background. Kava is easily much more of a social lubricant than alcohol could ever dream of being. If there was some way to improve the taste, I think it would become fairly popular.

Our idea was to maybe mix it with sweetened condensed milk, or possibly as a smoothie with fruit or ice cream.

Overall rating: 1.5 of 5 stars.

Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 12367
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Jul 10, 2019	Views: 2,595
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Kava (30) : General (1), First Times (2), Small Group (2-9) (17)