Are the different kinds of kava actually different?

I'm no kava expert, but I've had quite a bit of different kinds of kava. I've had alcohol tinctures, 84% kavalactone paste, 40% kavalactone powder, whole kava in capsules, kava tea, kava from different locations, old kava, fresh kava, etc. I have yet to notice any difference at all between any of them other than potency.

I keep reading how one kind is more stoning, another is more clear headed, etc., but I haven't been able to tell the difference between any of them. Is it just me? Or are these differences just so subtle that you really need to be heavily into kava to even detect them at all?

sorry to put a question right after the first post - i have no answer for that question - but what have u found a good dosage of plain ground kava root to be ?

Phlux-, that's a good question and I've not found any amount to be reliable. It seems to vary a lot. I prefer the extracts. They are generally more consistent.

With the powdered root, 1-2 tablespoons is the usual amount needed, but a test drive is always in order. For 1 batch, 1-2 could be perfect, for another, it might do nothing.

I've gotten really sick from too much kava in my early years. Go easy on it. It can cause pretty bad nausea at high doses.

The main thing with kava root powder that you need to be aware of is that the active kavalactones are very poorly soluble in water. You’ll get much better effects if you use warm whole milk to make kava tea than if you use water. I learned this the hard way. In attempting to get decent effects from using just water, you end up extracting more toxins than the desired compounds. I’m not sure what the toxins are, but they cause nausea. So it’s good to either make tea with milk or add lecithin to the water to emulsify the kavalactones.