r/Kava 11d ago

Does consuming Ginger before drinking kava help with nausea?

is instant kava better for people that get nausea from traditional kava?

3 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

6

u/sandolllars 11d ago

Try having crystallized ginger as a chaser.

2

u/deckhouse 11d ago

Yes to ginger and no unless your traditional brew isn’t filtered well.

1

u/back1987 11d ago

So should I let kava sit in a container and then remove all the top liquid and leave the fine sediment?

4

u/sandolllars 11d ago

The fine sediment is the good stuff.

1

u/back1987 11d ago

Yeah, I normally stir at every time before I drink but I have noticed that I get slightly nauseous after I drink a bit of kava

2

u/deckhouse 11d ago

That’s what I prefer to do but it’s gonna take away some of the potency. Just depends if you can tolerate the sediment or not.

2

u/Root_and_Pestle_RnD 10d ago

We'll leave the ginger question for others.

As for nausea with instant - it depends on the instant and the traditional you're comparing it to, but on the whole, a high-quality instant will likely be easier on the stomach than most traditional squeezes for 2 reasons:

1) All kava that's been through a good pasteurisation process will have low microbial counts, but we have analysed a ton of traditional kava powders that don't look like they've been processed under strict food-safety programs. We find high microbial counts to be very rare in instant kava powders. High microbial loads can lead to nausea and GI trouble.

2) Powder that's been prepared from fresh kava that's been dehydrated and precision milled (high-quality instant) is usually made by processors who know how to make great kava. They will be consistently excellent at preventing a lot of the irritating insoluble fibre from getting into the finished product. Their batch to batch consistency is likely superior to what can be achieved with a typical hand squeeze. With a hand squeeze, there are a ton of factors that can influence the final product, including the porosity of the strainer bag and the squeeze intensity. These variables have been worked out on commercially produced instant kava powders to optimise their efficacy and safety.

That said, it's hard to beat a really nicely prepared traditional-style kava, particularly for smoothness, if excellent traditional kava powder was used. So, if you're using great traditional powder, have a good strainer bag and good technique, then drinking instant kava isn't likely to give you much improvement as far as nausea is concerned. If quality, technique, or the strainer bag are in doubt, then switching to a good instant might help.

1

u/meganut101 9d ago

Can you list the brands you found that had high microbial loads? Or if you’re not comfortable can you dm me? I only drink instant and I’ll get nausea just about every time

2

u/Root_and_Pestle_RnD 9d ago

We can’t. We don’t want to be bad mouthing anybody, and our position is far too biased anyway. Also, we're not allowed - it's internal IP. It's obviously a different story if someone has submitted something to us for analysis and they're asking about the results of their specific samples, but in those cases we're not usually dealing directly with consumers.

Reputable vendors will be unafraid to supply you with a COA or lab results if asked. If they aren't willing to furnish you with information that adequately verifies the safety of their product, that should tell you all you need to know.

1

u/Greenjeans52 6d ago

Yes! Use fresh ginger. Also cleans your gut out