Powdered Kava Review Hanakapi Ai - Medium Grind

[KrunkAsAskunk]

This is my first kava review and also my first order from GHK and I certainly have nothing to complain about.

First of all the taste... this kava goes down easier than most. The after taste is quite bitter, but the first few gulps just go down so smooth! Not as mild as something like borogu but like i said very smooth . The effects were different each time I drank this kava. Not particularly heady or heavy, right in the middle. This particular kava always feels like tudei in the sense that it really lingers for a long time. You will feel it in the morning pretty strong lol. Also, although you won't be knocked out right away, after the headiness starts to mellow out, it's very easy to fall asleep and stay asleep.

If you've experimented with lots of kavas and have some experience, you'll notice as soon as you smell this stuff that it's extremely high quality. Even a second wash is nothing to laugh at... this is a good bang for your buck kava that you could stretch for a while. My personal body chemistry does not seem to react to it as well as I hoped. By the end of the bag I may change my mind about that. A lot of times that's how it goes.

Although I wasn't obliterated by this strain, I am impressed by the overall quality.

 

[HeadHodge]

Great Review Stinky.
WELCOME to the forum!!!

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

I agree with all of that in my experience.
Hanakapi give me the pees.
And definitley is a strong middle. Never the same kava .
I've had the randomest effects ever from this stuff lol

 

[Alia]

Just a reminder to anyone interested - you can learn a little bit of history about Hanakapi'ai by going to GHK site and looking in the Library section for the book link Hawaiian 'Awa, Views of an Ethnobotanical Treasure there you can read a small section about Hanakapi'ai (pgs-32-33) . It is interesting to me that this cultivar was collected by a Nature Conservancy researcher in the early part of the 1980's, on the Kaua'i Valley of the same name, and it has never been found anywhere else in a native state- village site or historic site. Now it is grown throughout Hawai'i thanks to dedicated collectors like GHK. I have grown this cultivar for years and wondered- was it so rare in old Hawai'i because it was bad or because it was so good? My conclusion now after regular consumption of the fresh beverage of this cultivar is that it is excellent, if prepared correctly. It is my favorite of the Hawaiian cultivars- a dreamy, euphoric 'awa! My theory is that a Kahuna selected it for a private stock in pre-contact Hawai'i. One more final note about it - recently an elderly native speaker offered a brief oral history of her growing up near Hanakapi'ai Valley. She explained there were 2 cultivars of 'awa grown in that village- one was Hiwa and the other was just a description of a rare 'awa- " uliuli a opulepule no ho 'i" this means- dark, many colored and spotted. That's Hanakapi'ai!

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

Wow awesome stuff ! Allways interested in info related to kavas history. And any other herb for that matter . If anyone finds out any cool herb info. Share it with me

 

[Deleted User01]

Nice review @KrunkAsAskunk! Or thanks to Hedgie, Stinky! Nice history lesson from @Alia as well. I also love the stories from the Kahuna. They are like our mentors after all. In a world of terrorism where one might tell someone, "Don't go Berserker on me". We should instead say "Don't go Kahuna on me", meaning don't get too relaxed, plop on the couch, and opt out of going "out on the town".

 

[Jerome]

Holy grog this is good kava... Crazy stuff!

 

[Jerome]

Truly otherworldly.

 

[Vekta]

Sent me some of this for my knee pain. Works really good. Top notch.

 

[Jerome]

Sent me some of this for my knee pain. Works really good. Top notch.

Yeah I can see how this would be an excellent pain kava. It made my body tingle. Not a lot of euphoria. But very body numbing.

 

[kilakila]

I still get intense shoulder and upper back tightness. Had hanakapi'ai yesterday and today and there's a slight improvement but I'm still feeling the annoying tightness. I think muscles and ligaments in my neck are chronically tight as I hear a kind of cracking when I move my neck in a certain direction at a certain angle. No pain, but kind of annoying and disturbing. Anyway, I do love this kava and can drink it throughout the afternoon, feel pretty happy - in fact I found myself singing to the atrocious Kars for Kids radio commercial - and sleep reasonably well at night, but I'm still experimenting to find the perfect kava to lose the tightness (had it for several years and still attempting valium taper so that's not helping!).

 

[Vekta]

There is always mixing kava. Hanakapi ai some 12 y/o and some borogu for the lols. Mmmhm. Mojo...