A tolerance break due to sudden lack of effect

[Forretressqt]

Hey you groovy cats!

I’ve been a kava drinker on and off for about four years and drinking kava most days for the last 3 or so months.

My general go-to is palarasul, although I’ll rotate some Melomelo, Kelai and Boroguru as well.

About 3 weeks ago I tried instant kava for the first time to wonderful effect, and after returning to traditional grind I’ve suddenly found that the effects are far less than usual, still gentle relaxation coming through but absolutely nowhere near the “wah wah wee wa this is the good stuff” that I’ve had every time without fail until now.

I’ve experimented with doubling my usual dose (30-40g) with great results, however subsequent normal sessions have had the same lack of effect.


As such, I’m a few days into a week off and will report on the effects when I’m back on the grog, I was wondering if anyone has had the same experience?






Have a great week!

 

[Edward]

Hey you groovy cats!

I’ve been a kava drinker on and off for about four years and drinking kava most days for the last 3 or so months.

My general go-to is palarasul, although I’ll rotate some Melomelo, Kelai and Boroguru as well.

About 3 weeks ago I tried instant kava for the first time to wonderful effect, and after returning to traditional grind I’ve suddenly found that the effects are far less than usual, still gentle relaxation coming through but absolutely nowhere near the “wah wah wee wa this is the good stuff” that I’ve had every time without fail until now.

I’ve experimented with doubling my usual dose (30-40g) with great results, however subsequent normal sessions have had the same lack of effect.


As such, I’m a few days into a week off and will report on the effects when I’m back on the grog, I was wondering if anyone has had the same experience?






Have a great week!

Yes it's quite common. The mistake most people make with instant is that they spoon it in and have a great time with less side effects, blow through it really quickly and then wonder why it's so expensive. That to me is not comparing like with like. I'm not totally convinced that the perceived lack of results from the medium grind is as a result of the spell using the instant, I change between them both very often. It's more likely that you're just going through a bit of a phase with the medium where you're not feeling it as much. I don't know why it happens. It's unlikely that abstaining will help anything because you haven't built up a tolerance to kava all of a sudden. I would suggest superdosing for a few days and then you should find that you can reduce slowly back down to your usual amount and hopefully you will find that you get acceptable results at that level again. By superdosing I mean the sky is the limit but go with maybe 100g a day for 3 or 4 days before you reduce back down. That's worked for me when I have had similar phases in the past.

 

[Forretressqt]

Yes it's quite common. The mistake most people make with instant is that they spoon it in and have a great time with less side effects, blow through it really quickly and then wonder why it's so expensive. That to me is not comparing like with like. I'm not totally convinced that the perceived lack of results from the medium grind is as a result of the spell using the instant, I change between them both very often. It's more likely that you're just going through a bit of a phase with the medium where you're not feeling it as much. I don't know why it happens. It's unlikely that abstaining will help anything because you haven't built up a tolerance to kava all of a sudden. I would suggest superdosing for a few days and then you should find that you can reduce slowly back down to your usual amount and hopefully you will find that you get acceptable results at that level again. By superdosing I mean the sky is the limit but go with maybe 100g a day for 3 or 4 days before you reduce back down. That's worked for me when I have had similar phases in the past.

Thanks Edward, I’ve seen a lot of your posts when lurking through here and your insight is always fantastic- I’ll go for some proper massive doses starting tomorrow and see how it goes!

 

[Forretressqt]

Reporting in that I recently acquired Mighty Roots from Kava Society (pure lateral roots) and had about 80g the first night which knocked me on my ass, the next day i'm down to 40g and it's just as good, either the double dose in general or the higher kavalactone content of mighty roots seems to have done the trick; just as Edward suggested, i'm absolutely stoked to feel the magic again!

 

[Plantacious]

I wish I could take a break. But it would be very hard for me

 

[Russell Caruso]

I found that switching preparation methods made a big difference in how kava effects me. Using an aluball typically yields much more strong batches of kava, albeit a bit more nauseating, but tolerable. I find I get way more bang for my buck when I use the aluball, I think it has something to do with how it strains compared to regular strainer bags. Others might find different results, but I suppose it makes sense that the extra bit of sediment that makes it through the aluball would yield a stronger drink. Sometimes it's almost too strong and I'll be knocked out up through the next day or so and I usually wouldn't get much effect when I made kava traditionally, even with the same amount and a ton of kneading/squeezing.

For a while I thought kava had lack of effect for me, but honestly I just found it to be the prep method. Maybe you'll have similar results, I hope you do!

 

[Forretressqt]

Further update-

I very suddenly dropped from my usual 50-60 grams (I kept a higher dose for a couple of weeks after a couple of days of superdosing, unfortunately my feeling of tolerance came back after a couple of days!) back down to about 35g and for some reason it really started hitting again.

I do wonder if the strainer bag potentially has something to do with it- if I use over 60gish it becomes a lot harder to strain (duh?) but to the point where it never fully seems to "deflate" and i'll get little jets of water rather than the easier flow that I usually do- i'm not sure how this works or if it even affects it but I find that less than 40g seems to get the best strain for me.

Since then I took a 2 week-ish break due to budgeting, and i've come back to 35g and its going wonderfully.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

I confess that I drink kava mainly as a health beverage and it’s something I like the taste of, so I don’t really notice about the strong effects unless that’s deliberately what I’m going for, which surprisingly is not really that often. It’s more like I have a gentle kava baseline to life.

Plus, a cold shell of weak kava when you have been working outside goes down pretty well.

I love the way with kava people can drink it for so many different reasons and it works out well for them. It’s remarkably versatile.