Kava bar provides a welcoming place for those who may be recovering from drugs and alcohol

DAYTONA BEACH - There's a place on North Beach Street where customers belly up to the bar and drink a toast to life. But there's no alcohol in those glasses. Instead, the drink is called kava, a tea that many people who suffer from addiction and other afflictions swear by.

Drink Kava Bar at 204 N. Beach Street, offers natural drinks made from plants and the welcoming vibe of a neighborhood tavern, but without the booze.

"In addition to the drinks themselves, the community, the people that it brings together, is just like nothing you'll see anywhere else," said Kathy Kortum, a recovering alcoholic. "We come together and support each other in a way that I've never seen anywhere."

Kava is made from a powder derived from the kava plant's root, something native to Fiji and the South Pacific Ocean islands. The Alcohol and Drug Foundations states that Pacific Islander communities crushed, chewed and ground the root and stump of the shrub, then soaked it in cold water to produce a drink for ceremonies and cultural practices. These rituals were said to strengthen ties among groups, reaffirm status and help people communicate with spirits.

Kava was introduced to the communities in the north of Australia in the 1980s as a substitute for alcohol, to reduce alcohol-related harms in the community. The kava drink is often used for sedative, hypnotic and muscle-relaxant effects, in much the same way that alcohol is used, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.

But other plant-based drinks like those made from the kratom tree, native to parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, are offered by Drink Kava Bar. According to Healthline, traditionally, field workers chew on kratom leaves to help increase their energy and endurance, aid their heat tolerance, and relieve fatigue. The drink is also used for pain relief, its stimulant effects, and as a component of traditional medicinal applications.

For Kortum, the plant potion made of kratom elevates her mood but helps her feel relaxed.

"Just relaxed, a little energy, social, it's very similar to alcohol but without the negative side effects," Kortum said when asked how the kratom drink affects her. "I can drive home and don't lose my shoes and wreck my car."

Three strains of kratom

Kratom has three strains - red, white, and green, said Mike Meth, a clinical psychologist, and a customer of Drink Kava Bar.

"White is more energizing, kind of like coffee, red is more sedating, generally good for sleeping at night, and green is my personal favorite, and actually has an antidepressant," Meth said. "(The green strain) is very uplifting. It gives you a nice balance of relaxation and energy."

Meth has been visiting kava bars for 11 years, and said there is a kava community in the country, a group of people who look out for kava establishments to meet and join friends who have a love for kava and other natural alternatives.

"Kava has a lot of relaxing effects, mood-boosting effects. It can make people more social, and relaxing people but without a lot of the intoxicating effects of alcohol," Meth said.

While legal, Kratom is not for everyone.

The Drug Enforcement Administration considers it a "drug of concern." It can produce both stimulant effects (in low doses) and sedative effects (in high doses), and can lead to psychotic symptoms and psychological and physiological dependence. In the U.S., the abuse of kratom has increased markedly in recent years the DEA reports.

It can be consumed in the form of a tablet, capsule, or extract.

Kava as pain reliever, relaxant

For some, like Krystal Sperry, illness brings her to Drink Kava Bar to find relief for pain from fibromyalgia, and lupus, and calm for her ADHD.

Sperry owns three businesses. She visits Drink Kava Bar two or three times a week.

"Everyone that's here is friendly and kind, it's good energy, and there is no judgment," Sperry said. "You want to be around the people that are here."

At 24 Sperry had cancer and underwent a complete hysterectomy and then was diagnosed with lupus. She was using medications until she met April Pettersen, co-owner of Drink Kava Bar and learned of the natural drink. She has completely replaced her ibuprofen and Tylenol with kava and other plant drinks.

"When they opened the Kava bar, they started serving drinks that also help with other things, so the Kava, one of the things I have is ADHD and Kava drink helps with it. It helps with severe ADHD," Sperry said. "Drinking kava kind of calms that down, it calms my nerves down, it calms me down. It doesn't intoxicate you but it makes you feel a little more relaxed and you can breathe."

She comes in probably two or three times a week. "It's the equivalent of someone going to a bar and having a glass of wine after work. I come here and have this instead."

Kava, all the best parts of drinking but with none of the regrets

The co-owners of Drink Kava Bar are also recovering alcoholics and opioid users who sought different ways to feel good without the negative after-effects of alcohol or painkillers.

Colin Smith, April Pettersen, and Sam Tortorice, owned a cannabis store where Drink Kava currently stands. The location was flooded by tropical storms Ian and Nicole.

And because they were in recovery from alcohol and opiates, they really didn't have an outlet for stress relief like other people who went to bars to drink, they said.

But they started hearing about kava, so they did their research. They started visiting kava bars in Orlando, talked to bar owners, and learned about the drink.

They drank kava to experience the effect and they learned that the drink made from the root of the kava plant relaxed them and they were able to socialize without having the effects of alcohol.

"It works off the same system of alcohol, so it gives you that same social, relaxed, de-stressed, and anti-anxiety property of having a drink or two but there is actually no intoxication, no smell, no hangovers, no addictive properties," Smith said. "So it's kind of all the best parts of drinking with none of the regrets."

After researching about the plant, its effects, safe consumption and trips to dozens of bars drinking kava, the trio opened Drink Kava Bar at the North Beach Street location on Sept. 22, 2023.

Pettersen, who started drinking alcohol at age 14, and got into opiates at 18, is now sober for nine years. And kava still helps her socialize "without the stupid decisions" that alcohol brings on, she said.

"I just love the absence of alcohol. My quality of life is just so much better," Pettersen said.

Smith, who has been sober for 10 years, encourages people to visit Drink Kava Bar because his business's mission is to help people.

"We give out samples and tell people to try it," Smith said. "We are just so passionate about giving people a better quality of life."

Smith and Pettersen said they have seen their customer base increase attracting kava drink connoisseurs including scientists, tattoo artists, pilots, recovering alcoholics and opioid addicts, and people from all other walks of life.

"You know, it's essentially become a modern-day Cheers," Smith said.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida kava bar a popular spot for folks who struggle with addiction