What Can You Mix Instant Kava With? 3 Kava Mocktail Recipes

Instant kava is root that has already been extracted and dried back down to a powder, so you are not straining anything. You stir it into liquid and drink it. That makes it the fastest format we sell and the easiest one to build a mocktail on, and it also makes it easy to get wrong, because most people use water that is too hot and liquid that is too plentiful. Here is how we do it behind the bar.

What you need

• Instant kava. We reach for High Potency Instant Kava at 11.4% kavalactones for evening pours and the Heady Variety for daytime.
• A scale. A digital pocket scale reading to 0.01 g beats a spoon, because instant kava packs differently every scoop.
• A shaker bottle or a jar with a tight lid. A spoon will not do it.
• Warm water, not hot. Around 110 to 120 F.
• For mocktails: coconut milk, pineapple or orange juice, lime, ginger beer, a little honey or simple syrup, ice.
• Other bits worth having are in Accessories and DIY Supplies.

The base ratio

Start with 2 grams of instant kava to 4 ounces of warm water. That is a small, concentrated pour, and it is deliberate. Instant kava in a tall glass of water goes chalky and the powder settles out before you finish it. Four ounces you can drink in two swallows.

Weigh the powder into a dry shaker first, then add the water. Powder into water clumps far less than water onto powder. Shake hard for 15 to 20 seconds. Drink it within a minute or two, because it will separate. Swirl and go.

Water temperature, and why we stay off boiling

Warm water disperses the powder better than cold. Boiling water does not help and it makes the taste harsher. We keep a carafe at about 115 F on the bar and never go above 130 F. If all you have is cold water, shake twice as long and expect a slightly grittier texture.

Three builds we pour most

1. The Shell, straight. 2 g instant in 4 oz warm water, shaken, with a slice of pineapple on the side. This is the reference point. Make this first so you know what your kava actually tastes like before you cover it up.
2. Coconut Pineapple. 2 g instant shaken into 2 oz warm water until smooth, then poured over ice into 3 oz coconut milk and 2 oz pineapple juice. Squeeze of lime. The fat in the coconut milk carries the flavor and smooths out the bitterness more than sugar does.
3. Ginger Mule. 2 g instant into 2 oz warm water, shaken, poured over ice, topped with 4 oz ginger beer and a half ounce of lime juice. Serve in a copper mug if you are feeling it. The ginger covers the earthiness better than anything else we have tried.

In all three, dissolve the kava in a small amount of warm water first and add the cold ingredients after. Dumping instant straight into a cold mixed drink leaves you chewing powder at the bottom.

Batching for a group

For six people, weigh 12 g into a quart jar, add 24 oz of warm water, shake hard, then pour 4 oz shells. Batched kava separates as it sits, so shake the jar again between every pour. We do not batch more than an hour ahead. Keep it refrigerated if it sits longer, and shake it hard before serving.

Taste notes

Instant kava is earthy and peppery and it numbs the tongue a little. Nobody loves it on the first pour. What helps, in order: fat, acid, cold, then sweet. Coconut milk, then lime, then ice, then honey. Sugar alone mostly just makes it sweet and earthy. A pinch of salt in a coconut build does more than another spoon of syrup.

Storage

Keep instant kava sealed, dry and out of the sun. It takes up moisture from the air quickly and clumps once it does. A silica gel packet in the bag helps. Do not store the mixed drink for more than a day.

Cautions

• Do not combine kava with alcohol.
• Do not use kava if you are pregnant or nursing.
• Kava has been associated with reports of liver injury. Do not use it if you have liver problems or take medication that affects the liver, and speak with a physician before using kava if you are unsure.
• Do not drive or operate machinery after drinking kava.
• For adults 21 and over.

Disclaimer. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Traditional use of a botanical does not establish that it will produce any particular result. Keep out of reach of children.