A couple of quick kava questions (Australia)

[Frog Dreams]

Hello. I recently bought 500g of kava from an online vendor and am surprised how much I like it.

Couple of questions.

1. Why do people consume 100ml every 10/15 minutes rather than just drinking the entire batch at once?

2. I read somewhere it's better to do a lipid extraction... Is there really a significant difference? (I'd prefer to not add unwanted calories to my diet but if it is twice as strong, I will try a different extraction technique.)

3. I read somewhere that 35-40c is the perfect temperature for water extraction. Does this make a big difference?

4. I plan on consuming kava once a week. How much kava (I am using noble Fijian kava* from Kava Pros) is too much, if consuming only one day a week?

*https://www.kavapros.com.au/products/savusavu-kava

5. What's the best vendor / product available in Australia?

Many thanks,
-Frog Dreams

 

[Frog Dreams]

I answered question 1 myself. The effects of kava are short lasting, so it's better to space out the doses... also I get nausea when consuming larger amounts at once.

 

[the_wilderness]

Every one of these questions will depend on your individual constitution and is discovered by experimenting.
Personally:
Re.1, as you've discovered, spacing shells works best for most to lengthen the session and minimize nausea. If you're one of the most, lucky you. there are some like me who have to drink it all upfront to get effects.
2. makes no difference to me, some swear by it
3. see 2. Try it, sure, don't go too high or it will thicken your kava and make for instant spew.
4. imho, once a week? go for gold. stop when the cost outweighs the benefit. kava has diminishing returns at some point for everybody.
5, in Australia the legal vendors are (mostly) decent, but different cultivars and batches are going to hit individual bodies differently. Root and Pestle, Kava Pros and Karan's Kava are three vendors that come up frequently with excellent reviews.
Enjoy the process and the experimenting to find out what's right for you.

 

[Frog Dreams]

Thanks, wilderness. Much appreciated.

 

[OzKava]

The optimal dosage for you will depend on the cultivar, the age of the roots at harvest, the efficiency of your extraction and your tolerability to the beverage. The only way of finding out is trial and error. That said, the same dose prepared in the same way will not necessarily have an identical effect on different days, one of the mysteries of Kava. See also FAQ.

 

[Po_lina]

Hello,

I make mine with warm water because I feel like you get more out of it. Especially if using dry. Add a little at a time when kneading, it cools down as you're making it. And I also think its waaaay more comforting on a cold evening, after work and shower than sloshing ice cubes around in your hands.

What does a lipid kava extraction process look like? I'm curious, I don't know. Like oil and stuff?

 

[Lenticels]

3. see 2. Try it, sure, don't go too high or it will thicken your kava and make for instant spew.

If it thickens, you can always just water it down.

 

[Lenticels]

2. I read somewhere it's better to do a lipid extraction... Is there really a significant difference? (I'd prefer to not add unwanted calories to my diet but if it is twice as strong, I will try a different extraction technique.)

You can't possibly do a "lipid extraction" in a home setting: what you're referring to is the addition of an emulsified fat source when kneading, which can make hasten the release of KLs out of the root material matrix into your suspension/form a partial emulsion in addition to the typical colloidal suspension of a just-water kava preparation.

Adding a fatty emulsifier is often confused as directly increasing potency, but it's really meant to merely be an extraction aid in the case of, e.g., preparing large batches to potentially reduce how long you have to agitate for... if it does directly increase potency, it's a fairly modest increase. The same goes for fatty chasers, e.g., cheese or chocolate.

And yes, KLs are indeed fat-soluble, but in vivo bile acids are more than enough for solubilizing most lipids, including lactones/pyrones: so, solubilizing the KLs is really something only potentially useful in certain cases of, as stated, making the preparation itself (that being said, fatty chasers coat the mouth better than, e.g., fruit, and can thus be better for expunging the lingering earth taste of some blends/cultivars, as I've found.)

All home preparations have KLs temporarily suspended in water: either whole root powder constituents made to be suspended in water via agitation and percolation (and then more agitation just prior to drinking), dehydrated juice solids immediately added to/stirred to be suspended in water, or a supercritical CO2 (or other) extract, again, added to water. You could also (perhaps not so judiciously) eat any of the above/wash down with water, but that wouldn't count as a preparation.

I also wouldn't subscribe to the hair-splitting ideology of calorie-counters because that's likely to be unsustainable in the long run.

Experiment and find what suits you best.

4. I plan on consuming kava once a week. How much kava (I am using noble Fijian kava* from Kava Pros) is too much, if consuming only one day a week?

You'll find out and you'll be able to scale-back, is the best that could be told to you.

There is virtually no worthwhile universal yardstick dictating what's "too much" when it comes to kava, ergo, claims attempting to delineate what exactly is that should be taken with preferably the entire salt shaker.

5. What's the best vendor / product available in Australia?

Depends.

R&P/TKS illustrate the best adherence to the scientific method.