What is Kava Juice?

The term kava juice most certainly originated in Vanuatu. Normally we would think of juice as something sweet and savory to be enjoyed with a meal, usually in the morning as is the case of orange juice. Juice is defined in part as the fluid naturally contained in plant tissue. Thus, kava juice is exactly what it sounds to be, juice from the kava plant. In Vanuatu, kava root is usually harvested while it is alive and "green". This kava root is cleaned up and prepared to be consumed that evening. After the kava root is ground up the juices are literally squeezed from within the root and saved to be drunk in the nakamal at dusk. This drinking of green kava appears to be unique. In other island nations such as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga the kava root is dried and ground before it is made into kava drink.

The taste of green kava juice is much different than that of kava juice made from dried root. The taste of the fresh, green kava is much more pleasant than that of the grog made from dried kava. This green kava juice tastes a little sweeter than its dried counterpart and also tastes a little grassy. This is probably from the chlorophyll and enzymes that are still in the plant when it is harvested. In the dried kava these sensitive compounds are destroyed by the drying. Our Fire Island instant kava is nothing more than dehydrated kava juice.

It would suffice to say that kava juice made from dried kava root is not really kava juice but closer to kava tea because dried kava root technically has no fluids in it until the water is added for pressing. This violates the juice definition above. These two terms are used pretty interchangibly despite this misnomer. What's the difference? Kava juice, kava tea, who cares? Drink kava, be happy and don't sweat the small stuff.