Kava is grown across the tropical Pacific Islands, especially Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and parts of Micronesia. Kava was first domesticated in northern Vanuatu 3,000 years ago based on botanical, genetic, and linguistic evidence (repository.usp.ac.fj). Kava from macerated (chewed, pounded or grated) roots of Piper Methysticum a Polynesian shrub. (wehd.com) Kava was documented in the United States by 1800’s and was first featured in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia in 1886 (ftc.gov). The first Kava bar was opened in Boca Raton, Floridia in 2002. Around over 600 Kava bars exists in the contintental U.S. and territories, with over 400 in Florida. The next top six states are Florida, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Arizona and Texas. Minnesota currently has two active listings of Kava bars statewide. By comparison, the city of Asheville, North Carolina, has 5 Kava establishments, 24 statewide (bestkavabar.com). Certainly Kava is beloved by the hippie crowd. People describe kava, such as Tom Harrison a British explorer said “The head is affected pleasantly; you feel friendly, not beer sentimental” (reddit.com) and Robert Louis Stevenson a travel writer in 1890 wrote that the drink is convivial. In an 1866 botanical report it was described as “calming rather than intoxicating” (wehd.com). At communal kava ceremonies they describe kava as soothing and calming like tobacco and not intoxicating like alcohol. When it comes time to serve the kava, the gathering will stop speaking and there will be one person serving the kava and one person as host. People clap twice before drinking kava beverage out of a coconut shell bowl as it gets passed around the room.
