Just Placed an Order

[KavaKitty]

Since I live with 9 other people, and I know nothing about making traditional grog, I just placed an order for Kalm With Kava's Relaxation Drink. I was kind of put off by the fact that my $18 6-pack came to over $30 with shipping via standard mail, but that's not their fault (I'm a dead broke writer so I don't have a lot of spare money to spend on this stuff). I hope to learn more about what kind of stuff I need to prepare a more traditional kava, but in the meantime, I'm excitedly awaiting delivery and sucking away on my Ozia candies in the meantime. Any help anyone can offer in terms of supplies I will need to create a traditional beverage, I would be hugely grateful (like, muslin bags or whatever I need to put the root into). Please keep in mind my serious money constraints! Thanks!

 

[The Kap'n]

You'll like that as well. Kalm with Kava's drinks are super tasty. They're excellent for ending the day.

 

[dino9832]

You could order some Loa Lawena kava from @CactusKava WITH a strainer bag thrown in for free!
http://cactuskava.com/product/loa-lawena-kava

It's where I got my strainer bag, and they last a LONG time. You'll want to get some latex gloves also. Kava can be rough on the skin. I just use a plastic storage bowl for my kava prep.

If you're really liking kava, and want to invest some money, I'd recommend getting a @Kavafied AluBall for quick kava prep. It's awesome for making kava on the go as well!
http://www.getkavafied.com/

 

[KavaKitty]

You could order some Loa Lawena kava from @CactusKava WITH a strainer bag thrown in for free!
http://cactuskava.com/product/loa-lawena-kava

It's where I got my strainer bag, and they last a LONG time. You'll want to get some latex gloves also. Kava can be rough on the skin. I just use a plastic storage bowl for my kava prep.

If you're really liking kava, and want to invest some money, I'd recommend getting a @Kavafied AluBall for quick kava prep. It's awesome for making kava on the go as well!
http://www.getkavafied.com/

Thank you so much for the info! I'm reading all this stuff on other sites about traditional prep and frankly, a lot of it sounds really confusing and a little bit elitist. Good to know I don't have to put on a grass skirt and coconut bra, dance under the full moon, and chant an ancient spell in Tagalog while kneading the root in a bag made from virgin unicorn mane.

 

[blindy107]

You don't have to....but it helps.

 

[Sam Handwich]

You could order some Loa Lawena kava from @CactusKava WITH a strainer bag thrown in for free!
http://cactuskava.com/product/loa-lawena-kava

It's where I got my strainer bag, and they last a LONG time. You'll want to get some latex gloves also. Kava can be rough on the skin. I just use a plastic storage bowl for my kava prep.

If you're really liking kava, and want to invest some money, I'd recommend getting a @Kavafied AluBall for quick kava prep. It's awesome for making kava on the go as well!
http://www.getkavafied.com/

This is excellent advice and exactly how I got into traditional prep. Cactus Kava Ono and Lawena with the free bags. Great kava and a great deal. Don't be intimidated by traditional prep, kava goes in strainer, strainer goes in a bowl of warm water, knead and squeeze for a few minutes....that's it!

 

[dino9832]

One of the best learning kavas I've found is @Squanch72's kava. Here's a 1/2 pound for sale. It comes in larger quantities as well.
http://kavaforums.com/forum/resources/squanch-kava-fiji-waka-1-2-lb.7/

The Squanch root feels really muddy in the bag when you first start. I'd recommend using 1 tablespoon of root and 400ml of warm water to start. The water gets all brown and muddy looking as you squeeze the bag. Get a bowl and add the warm water. Submerge the bag letting it soak a bit. Then, squishing the bag firmly, then gently massage it till it sort of puffs up again. Then, squish firmly again! Keep doing this for about 5 minutes.

Remove the bag, and pour the kava water into another container. Then, add 400ml more of water to the now empty bowl. Put the bag in, and repeat the squishing process for another 5 minutes or so.

You should REALLY start feeling the difference with the second wash. All of a sudden, the bag gets real easy to squish. The water isn't turning near as thick and brown. It's like, you know it's done. The bag feels like it's full of grit instead of mud.

Then it's kava time! I usually kick off the grass skirt at this point. But the coconut bra reminds me not to go outside anytime soon!..lol.

 

[Edward]

Thank you so much for the info! I'm reading all this stuff on other sites about traditional prep and frankly, a lot of it sounds really confusing and a little bit elitist. Good to know I don't have to put on a grass skirt and coconut bra, dance under the full moon, and chant an ancient spell in Tagalog while kneading the root in a bag made from virgin unicorn mane.

Oh by the way, you ARE a virgin aren't you?

 

[The Kap'n]

Oh by the way, you ARE a virgin aren't you?

This is the internet. We're all virgins here.

 

[KavaKitty]

Oh by the way, you ARE a virgin aren't you?

I've been a virgin several times.

 

[Edward]

I've been a virgin several times.

Great! You can make the best kava no problem then

 

[JKE]

Since I live with 9 other people, and I know nothing about making traditional grog, I just placed an order for Kalm With Kava's Relaxation Drink. I was kind of put off by the fact that my $18 6-pack came to over $30 with shipping via standard mail, but that's not their fault (I'm a dead broke writer so I don't have a lot of spare money to spend on this stuff). I hope to learn more about what kind of stuff I need to prepare a more traditional kava, but in the meantime, I'm excitedly awaiting delivery and sucking away on my Ozia candies in the meantime. Any help anyone can offer in terms of supplies I will need to create a traditional beverage, I would be hugely grateful (like, muslin bags or whatever I need to put the root into). Please keep in mind my serious money constraints! Thanks!

Check out the aluball if you want to do traditional prep. It's very handy for traditional prep. Instead of kneading with cheese cloth, which can take quite a while and be messy, you put about 3 tablespoons into a ball and shake it in a container. It takes about 5-10 minutes for one serving if you want to be really thorough. If not, you can just do a second wash to make sure you got all the kavalactones out (so just do the same thing again). The aluball is from a vendor named "Kavafied". Their kava is pretty good and cheap too. I've been drinking their "Waka Fiji" kava for the past 3 days or so. Today I finally got significantly past my reverse tolerance after drinking like 8 tablespoons of their kava haha. Let us know how the relaxation drink is.

Here's a link: http://www.getkavafied.com?rfsn=212602.08023

 

[Vekta]

Thank you so much for the info! I'm reading all this stuff on other sites about traditional prep and frankly, a lot of it sounds really confusing and a little bit elitist. Good to know I don't have to put on a grass skirt and coconut bra, dance under the full moon, and chant an ancient spell in Tagalog while kneading the root in a bag made from virgin unicorn mane.

Never heard of traditional kava consumption in the Philippines. The reason why traditional prep is talked about so much is because we're trying to be very careful about how Kava is brought into western main stream culture. When the traditions around kava are lost it will become a lot easier for governments and big pharma to demonize and attack it.

"Elitist" is a strong word. It's not just the kava that is apart of the experience or the reason why many of us drink it. The culture and traditions are apart of that experience. There are a lot of problems in the world, a lot of people that don't like other people. These traditions, at least for me, represent a state of mind and view that allows us to rise above all the horrible things that tend to sell more newspapers.

Welcome to the tribe.

 

[KavaKitty]

Never heard of traditional kava consumption in the Philippines.

Me either. Tagalog just happened to be the most exotic language I could come up with off the top of my head, lmao. And I agree wholeheartedly with you regarding the way kava is presented to Western culture; it's just that several of the sites I found had people in them who were not very forthcoming when it came to basic advice. Their attitude was, "If you don't know, figure it out." That's what I meant by "elitist." I don't think anyone here is elitist at all, in fact, I've never felt so welcome in a place in my life. I truly appreciate all the help you guys have given me over the past couple of days. I want to get the most out of my kava experience, and I have tremendous respect for the plant and the people who use it properly. I'm sure all the questions I've been asking have been covered ad nauseum in other threads, but no one here has said, "Go use the search function." My questions have been answered politely, and I haven't been made to feel in any way stupid. Not so on other forums, and honestly, I was about to just say, "F**k it," and go get a xanax prescription. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this forum after I got Mike's kava candies, and I changed my mind. So thank you.

 

[Vekta]

We like newbies. We like questions.

The future of kava in the west will probably be made or broken on the shoulders of newbies. If a question is asked enough staff will probably make a pinned thread for it. Otherwise we don't mind answering questions even if someone asked it before.