In the islands it's a social drink. Villages have a place where people gather in the evening to drink kava and talk — the equivalent of a pub, except everyone leaves clear-headed. It's served at negotiations, at weddings, and at the end of ordinary days.

Outside the Pacific, most people come to it for the same reason: they want the ritual of an evening drink without the cost of one.

Kava has been consumed daily across the Pacific for three thousand years, prepared exactly the way we prepare it — cold water, noble root, nothing added. That's the tradition we're continuing, and it's the version with the long record behind it.

Like anything with real activity, it isn't for everyone. Not while pregnant or nursing, not under 18, not alongside alcohol, and not before driving until you know how it affects you. If you take prescription medication, ask your doctor first.

Not all kava is the same. Over centuries, Pacific islanders selected certain cultivars for daily drinking and avoided others. The selected ones are called noble varieties. The others, sometimes sold cheaply as "tudei" kava, have a different chemical profile and a reputation for lingering unpleasant effects.

We use noble root only, and we verify it by lab testing rather than by taking anyone's word for it.