Looking for kava source

June 21, 2006 7:37 PM

Where can I order kava kava tea?

My wife drinks kava tea every few days for anxiety (works amazingly well). She drinks the Yogi Tea brand. I'm out of the loop on this but she tells me she is having trouble locating it lately, presumably because of the liver damage scare, which she is well versed with. I'd like to do her a favor and (with the help of MeFites) hook her up with a new source of kava tea. I'm in the US, but an international source would work. Any ideas? Did Yogi Tea really stop making this, or are resellers just not bothering with it anymore?

Also any suggestions for other things she can try (besides exercise -- she is active) that work well for clinical anxiety (not depression, bipolar, or other disorders) would be fine; maybe there's something that she could try. But I'd like the kava source too.

Whoever finds a source that she likes and begins using I will flag as "favorite"... if I flag your post feel free to E-mail me and I will send an autographed copy of one of my books (I'm a science writer) as a gesture of thanks. It might take her a few days to figure out whether any of the sources work for her.

posted by hodyoaten to health & fitness (8 comments total)

Have you googled it?





And tons of others.
posted by borkingchikapa at 7:44 PM on June 21, 2006

Whoops, fucked THAT up.

Amazon

Yogi's site
posted by borkingchikapa at 7:45 PM on June 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

You're right, c-els.com has it (under Stress Relief, same as we have here). I'll have to see if she just overlooked this.
posted by hodyoaten at 8:15 PM on June 21, 2006

Kava tea?!?!?

Can't see how that would work at all, other than through a placebo affect. My understanding is that the active ingredients in kava (kavalctones?) need to be extracted in an emulsion (eg blend kava with oil & lecithin), via alcoholic extraction, or perhaps the traditional way - chewing the root & letting the enzymes in saliva do the trick.

Steeping in hot water sounds like a waste of time.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:18 PM on June 21, 2006

Erowid recommends Nakamal@Home.
posted by Gyan at 9:15 PM on June 21, 2006

UbuRoivas, I have made kava "tea" both with and without lecithin (but never with oil). I've found that while including lecithin does increase potency, one can still experience significant kavalactone effects without it. In fact, if you have some relatively potent kava and are not looking to get zonked out of your gourd, a simple hot water steep might be the way to go.

Nakamal@Home is indeed excellent, but may be a bit more involved than what hodyoaten's wife is looking for. While the results are well worth the trouble in my opinion, preparing kava from dried root is messy and takes a long time... not to mention the resulting beverage (and I use that term loosely) is by far the most foul-tasting substance I've ever had in my mouth. Happily, Nakamal does sell instant kava powder now; I have some sitting around but haven't tried it yet.
posted by purplemonkie at 5:51 AM on June 22, 2006

I don't know if you are looking just for recommendations on herbals or not, but cognitive behavioral therapy can be very effective in the treatment of anxiety. It's short term and goal-oriented, and there is good evidence out there for its effectiveness.

Also, you probably know this, but kava can interact with a lot of medications and other herbs.
posted by tuff at 12:37 PM on June 22, 2006

purplemonkie, thanks...handy to know. I was going largely on what was written in Dale Pendell's book, Pharmakopoeia, as well as general reading in erowid & elsewhere. No denying it - kava prepared from ground root is unutterably disgusting! I ended up settling on an alcoholic tincture from a health food store (actually, kava & st john's wort, for mild anxiety & depression).
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:11 PM on June 22, 2006