After her shift as a flight attendant, Najah Williams drove two long hours from Ontario, California to Riverside.
Why?
To satisfy her kava craving.
Kava nectar is brewed from the roots of the kava plant. The drink has been a Pacific island tradition for over 3000 years which adherents say promotes relaxation and sociability.
“Kava nectar makes me feel amazing,” Williams, 27, said. “When you drink it, it just feels like you’re at the beach sitting in a wave. Not at the sand but in the water.” The drink is alcohol-free, sugar-free and additive-free.
Williams gets her kava fix at Kavahana. It opened in Santa Monica, three blocks from the beach, in February 2024. Kavahana is the only kava-nectar bar in the U.S. Wilen says this sets it apart.
Co-founder Hannah Wilen has been drinking “the stuff” for over a decade, to combat anxiety, she shared. She decided to introduce Fiji’s national drink to an American audience. The latter half of the name Kavahana takes after her first name, Hannah.
Wilen and partner Neil Bhatia came up with the idea of Kavahana last year. Since, they went from serving kava drinks in underground raves to a brick-and-mortar business.
“We don’t want to be a bar. We don’t want to be a coffee shop, either. We want to be a kava nectar bar,” Wilen said. “A place where you can sit on the couches and play board games or sit at the bar or do your work here and study. It’s an open third space.”
Wilen says kava is coffee’s “sister for relaxation.” Unlike coffee, kava has a unique natural property of reverse tolerance. She recommends two to four drinks for first-time consumers to feel the effects. As you continue to drink it, you need less and less to feel the effects.
Kavahana enters the non-alcoholic beverage industry at a key moment.
According to a DataM market research report, the Global Non-alcoholic Beverages Market reached $750.6 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $1,242.3 billion by 2030.
“We like to joke here that mocktails are just juice and kava nectar is something that you can actually feel,” Wilen said.
Karen Locke, founder of Oregon-based beverage marketing agency High Proof Creative, said consumer preferences seem to be shifting towards functional beverages — drinks that don’t just taste good but also offer health benefits, serving as a viable alternative to alcohol.
“There will be more and more sober, curious people,” Locke said. “A lot of people are thinking that the non-alcoholic surge in sales and surge and product development is a trend, but I think it’s a trend that’s going to stay.”
Locke sees Gen Z as the group most impacted by the #SoberCurious movement. According to a new NCSolution analysis, Gen Z’s interest in the sober curious movement increased 53% from 2023 to 2024. They surveyed over 1,000 Americans aged 21 or older to gather perspectives on drinking and alcohol trends in 2024.
“I think there is kind of a cultural push to be a little bit healthier. A lot of Gen Z turned 21 during COVID. They drink less because they were around fewer people with lockdown and bars weren’t open,” Locke said. “People may have less to spend when they’re younger, so spending less on alcohol-based products that might be $50, $60. It might be easier to find a functional beverage that they enjoy.”
Wilen, seeking to use this trend to her advantage, has tapped into a significant portion of her customer base through Instagram and TikTok.
“I am actually the first kava content creator on the internet. I do a ton of education about what kava is, what it isn’t, you know. A lot of my content is ‘day in the life’ or my failures, just being super authentic,” Wilen said. “It inspires other people to start their own businesses, or to want to learn more about kava because the more we can be authentic about our business and about kava, the more people want to learn.”
Wilen said the biggest challenge in promoting her business is challenging the misconceptions about kava.
Usually when things seem too good to be true…they are. But kava-nectar’s mood-boosting effects truly have no catch.
A 2008 World Health Organization study found that kava extracts used in pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s caused liver damage. There is a difference in chemical composition between traditionally prepared brewed kava tea and kava in pill and tablet form. Natural kava nectar is not linked to any health issues.
“Most kava in the U.S. is ground-up kava root. You have to knead it and strain it for about 20 minutes before you drink it. There’s another type of Kava, which is called kava extract. That’s the worst kind of Kava in my experience because it’s not the real root,” Wilen said. “What we serve is kava nectar. It’s basically like drinking fresh kava on the islands.”
Staying true to kava’s origins and her company being AAPI-owned, Wilen has integrated various flavors into Kavahana’s menu. Customers can try ube which is a purple yam native to Southeast Asia, coconut, rose and matchakava nectar drinks.
“The traditional way to drink Kava is just kava and water. But for a lot of new people, it’s very difficult for them to just drink it that way because it’s very earthy,” Wilen said. “The reason why we do mix flavors is because we want to introduce people to cover in a more gentle way and a lot of people actually graduated drinking it the traditional style.”
Brianna Ibarrola, 25, embraces the natural flavor of kava. Her go-to order is the matchakava nectar – the earthy blend of the kava and matcha complement each other perfectly, she said.
She came to Kavahana to relax after a busy weekend at Coachella.
“I feel very stable, like, level. I can still go about my day,” Ibarrola said. “I can drive still and everything, and it helps because I used to have social anxiety. The mental effects of it are kind of more grounded than alcohol. I’ve met a few people here before, like, everybody’s very friendly. I think the kava helps with that, too.”
As with any small business, Kavahana now faces the enduring challenge: how to grow.
Already, it has seen open mic nights on Tuesdays, trivia contests on Wednesdays and karaoke on Thursdays.
“As the industry grows, it will take a lot more to market it,” Locke said. “In terms of maybe events or gatherings are giving people a reason who haven’t tried that non-alc beverage in an environment to go there and to continue to return..”
Wilen prioritizes fostering a welcoming environment. She wants Kavahana to be more than just a place to get a drink.
“Conscious connections, I think, is the big thing,” Wilen said. “Smiles and joy is really what we’re all about. So, if we can bring that without alcohol, and we can have people come in as strangers and leave as friends, we’ve done our job.”