Kava Kava High

KAVA KAVA HIGH

A number of HTH readers have recently written into us with a very specific question – what is a kava kava high and what does it feel like? These readers are clearly familiar with kava kava, but for those of you who are not, we strongly suggest that you broaden your knowledge on kava kava (and kava tea) by taking a quick look at our Ultimate Guide to Kava Kava. Once you’ve developed a foundation knowledge of Kava, you’ll likely be even more interested in the Kava Kava High. Ready to learn more?

Before Buying or Consuming Kava

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This HTH article about the Kava Kava High has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. It is very important to understand that Kava Kava is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Please consult a health professional prior to ingesting any form of Kava. This is especially true for those HTH readers who are pregnant, nursing a baby or taking prescription medications. Kava may even interfere with certain medications and should not be taken with alcoholic beverages nor by persons under the age of 18.

KAVA KAVA HIGH: GUIDE

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We decided to write this article about the Kava Kava High after being contacted by a handful of readers seeking this information. This article captures our own personal experience and blends a number of other experiences of HTH readers who have shared their story with us. We’ve organized this post into a number of different sections, including a brief introduction to the basics of Kava before getting into a short section on one of our favorite ways to consume Kava in the form of Kava Tea.

Next, we’ve included a couple of helpful hints about where you can purchase Kava for yourself and have included a link to our favorite kind of kava root powder. After that, we’ve included a section about the High where you can learn what to expect (at least in our experience and those of some of our readers). Let’s get started!

What Produces the Kava Kava High?

Kava is a type of small plant or shrub that is traditionally found in the Pacific Islands (most notably the islands of Hawaii or Fiji). Natives of these Pacific islands have turned to the kava plant for many thousands of years for a variety of reasons. Traditionally, Kava has been used as part of cultural or spiritual ceremonies. It was also used because of its alleged medical benefits.

Kava contains a number of components (what the scientific community refers to as “constituents”). There are as few as tens upon tens and may be even closer to hundreds. It is thought that the “psychoactive” components are the “kavapyrones” and “kavalactones” that naturally occur within the Kava plant. Most times these are located in greater number within the Kava stem or its roots (as opposed to its leaves). As a reminder, the term “psychoactive” can be defined as, “an external substance or material that impacts the brain and results in changes of perception, consciousness, mood, or other of behavior”. Of course, it is these very effects that many Kava enthusiasts seek. 

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Great Taste; Easy to Work With!

Commonly referred to as an “herbal sedative” and being hailed in some circles as a natural replacement of synthetic anti anxiety medication, Kava has become increasingly popular in recent years as many make effort to steer away from “modern” medicine and instead elect to pursue traditionally eastern remedies. Kava is often cited to alleviate anxiety, depression, stress and a host of other conditions.

Kava Kava High: Kava Tea

One of our favorite ways to achieve a manageable high is via the creation and consumption of Kava Kava Tea. While we’ve written about it in much greater detail in our post on the best kava tea recipe, we’ve included just the basics below as a quick reference:

Ingredients (this will create approximately 2 servings)

• 16 oz of Water
• 6 tablespoons of Ground Kava Root.
• 2 tablespoons of Sugar.
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 1 tablespoon of Ground Cinnamon.

Instructions (make sure to be careful and take your time)

• You should start by pouring water into an herbal teapot.  Bring the water to a  low boil by placing over medium heat.
• Now, reduce the heat to low.
• After a few minutes, carefully add the ingredients, including kava root powder (or ground kava root), vanilla extract, sugar, and ground cinnamon. We make this tea with an infuser.
• The cinnamon and sugar that we reference above are purely optional, depending on your tastebuds (remember, Kava Tea can be bitter)!
• Let simmer for approximately 10 minutes (longer simmering time results in a stronger tea).
• Carefully remove the teapot from the heat.   Allow the teapot cool for about 5 minutes.
• Once cooled to your liking, you can pour the kava tea into cups. This is also an acceptable stage to add extra sugar if desired.
• Make sure to stir vigorously as sugar is added to allow it to dissolve properly.
• Now its time to enjoy! Make sure to not consume too quickly if it is your first time experimenting with Kava Tea!

How to Prepare for the Kava Kava High

Our local health food store has a great selection and knowledgeable employees! It rarely advertises and we were very lucky to find it! We like going there because we frequently chat with fellow Kava believers and even learn of new recipes to try! Sometimes these stores will also have literature where you can learn more about the kava plant or a particular manufacturer that you might be interested in. We’ve even been told by some of our readers that an employee of their own local health food store has her own Kava Kava cookbook!

Remember, your local specialty food store might be a little more expensive than your local “big box store”. The upside of higher prices is the added benefit of increased selection! You’ll also find value in knowledgeable employees and enthusiastic fellow shoppers! Please do not hesitate to ask us if you have had trouble finding a good health food store in your area and remember that you can always buy online!

Perhaps this is one of the most obvious way to buy Kava. The below is a great example of a Kava product that you can find online (just like we did). We wanted a high quality (not to mention very potent) Kava that we could use when making Kava tea. We were in luck (and we didn’t have to spend too much money):

We were fortunate to find and make Kava tea with the brand shown above. This particular type is better tasting, higher quality, and a more potent blend of Kava. We’ve suggested that our local specialty food store look into stocking it on their shelves. The owner told us they will look into it once they get back from their trip to Morocco! We are very excited to spread the word!

The Experience

One HTH enthusiast had recently contacted us and wanted to share her story. The following are her words.

“I had become very apprehensive about my life. I had recently graduated from a local university with a degree in creative writing and had amassed an impressive amount of student loans ($150,000) with the promise of landing a good job and starting my future as a content writer for a prominent magazine or newspaper. After only being able to find work at the local dog boarding facility as a kennel cleaner, I returned to university to get a Masters degree (with an emphasis on poetry).

After amassing an additional $42,000 in student loans and without any promising career prospects I had become very disillusioned. I could not sleep. I could not stand to be alone, yet I had debilitating anxiety when going out in public. My life seemed to be spiraling out of control and my psyche was quickly unraveling. I decided to stop taking my prescription medication and opt for a more traditional means of self medication.

I began brewing and consuming one cup of Kava Tea per day. The results were near immediate. Aside from the process of brewing the Kava Kava Tea being medicinal to me in and of itself, I found the impact of the High almost immediately upon my consumption of the tea. I did not feel cloudy or apathetic when consuming the kava tea, nor did I feel “high” like you might expect when consuming a psychoactive product. Instead, each time I feel a general sense of relaxation and an elevated sense of well being, even despite my circumstances being unchanged. I would frequently only have one cup, as additional cups of Kava tea were met with decreasing “marginal utility” as those fancy smancy finance students and university would say!”

We wish Juniper the best of luck in her future endeavors and thank her for sharing her experience with this particular High on this herbal tea community!

CONCLUSION

HerbalTeaHour.com hopes that this article about the Kava Kava High has been insightful to you. Admittedly, each different consumer of Kava is going to have a different  high. At the end of the day, isn’t that what we are all seeking in our life? Some kind of uniqueness that is our own. The Kava Kava High allows for that. If you have any more questions about what to expect with your own High or would like to share your own experience similar to what Juniper has done, please make sure to write to HTH by posting in the Comments section below!

Be sure to check out the results of a recent study on the effects of Kava Kava, here!

Comments

Have you experienced a Kava Kava High? What was it like? Did you achieve the high by experimenting with Kava Tea or did you consume it in some other manner? Do you have any suggestions for other HTH readers on things that you found particularly helpful when working with Kava? We love to hear from our readers and are sure to read and reply to all comments!

HerbalTeaHour.com is an herbal tea community that truly values transparency and disclosures. We want to be very clear about one thing. In addition to being herbal tea enthusiasts, we do participate in the Amazon Affiliate program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.