Over Two Decades Devoted to One Question:
"Is this the best kava we can provide?"
We began working with kava in 2006 with a focused objective: identify exceptional kava from across the Pacific and develop reliable ways to evaluate its quality.
Kava is not a uniform agricultural product. Cultivar, chemotype, growing conditions, harvest practices, storage, and processing all influence what ultimately reaches the bowl. From the beginning, we believed those differences should be measured and understood rather than reduced to marketing claims.
Our work has also been informed by years of study in ethnobotany, traditional plant use, and the cultures surrounding kava. Across Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, kava has long played an important role in ceremony, hospitality, dialogue, and community life.
That combination of cultural respect and technical inquiry continues to guide Root of Happiness today.
Root of Happiness - The Early Years
By 2012, when we founded Root of Happiness, we had already spent six years sourcing, lab testing, preparing, and studying kava through our ethnobotanical research company. Beginning in 2006, we sourced kava from across the Pacific and compared samples analytically, building an early understanding of how origin, cultivar, processing, and chemical composition affected finished-product quality. Kava gradually became a central focus as we expanded our sourcing relationships, analytical testing, extraction research, and distribution programs.
That laboratory work was increasingly paired with firsthand field experience. Beginning in 2008, we developed relationships with experienced growers and producers in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere in the Pacific, making repeated trips to study cultivation directly with growers including Zach Gibson on the Hamakua Coast. By 2012, we had brought those years of sourcing, agricultural learning, analytical research, and product development together with the opening of the first Root of Happiness Kava bar, putting that knowledge into practice through preparation, education, and direct customer experience.
Learning Kava from the Ground Up
From 2013 through 2017, we made multiple extended trips each year to Hawaiʻi to learn kava cultivation firsthand from experienced growers and mentors, including our personal friend and master Kava farmer Zack Gibson (RIP 2018) at Pu'u'ala Kava Farm on the Hamakua Coast of Big Island Hawaii. We worked in the field learning how to propagate, grow, identify, harvest, and evaluate different cultivars, while developing a practical understanding of the diseases and growing conditions that affect the plant.
That field experience became an important part of our knowledge base. By comparing cultivar, growing environment, plant health, and analytical results, we began to better understand why particular kava can express different chemotypes and quality characteristics. We carried that knowledge back into our sourcing and testing programs and used it to help growers and partners elsewhere in the Pacific identify plant-health problems, evaluate their kava, and improve cultivation and post-harvest practices.
Milestones Along the Way
Over the years, we have developed products, systems, and organizations intended to address practical needs within the growing kava industry.
- 2006 — Sourcing of Kava and Analytical Research Begins
The founders began sourcing Kava from growing regions across the Pacific and comparing samples analytically to better understand differences in quality, cultivar, and chemical composition. This work formed the basis of their retail and wholesale kava program through their ethnobotanical research company. - 2012 — Polynesian Gold®
Introduced a water-soluble CO₂ kava extract designed to provide concentrated kava without the sediment associated with conventional powdered products. - 2014 — American Kava Association
Helped establish one of the earliest American industry organizations devoted to kava standards, education, regulatory issues, and responsible commercial practices. - 2015 — The Original 100% Kava Shot
Developed a concentrated, shelf-stable, ready-to-drink kava shot in a compact format. - 2015 — The First Fiji Government Delegation Visits
"To our amazement when walking in to meet the owner we noted the bar was already half full with customers drinking the various kinds of Kava beverages served," said The Acting Permanent Secretary for Agriculture -Uraia Waibuta - 2016 — Fresh-Frozen Hawaiian Kava
Began distributing commercial quantities of fresh-frozen green kava to the mainland United States, allowing kava bars far from the Pacific to serve a product much closer to freshly harvested kava. - 2017 — Fully Audited cGMP Manufacturing
Established our in-house dedicated fully audited cGMP manufacturing operation for kava extracts, concentrates, beverages, and finished products. - 2018 — KavaLytics®
Developed a portable analytical screening system intended to make rapid kava evaluation more accessible to growers, importers, manufacturers, and other industry participants. - 2019 — Kali Kava
Successfully established a commercially viable tissue-culture program for four American kava cultivars, creating a scalable foundation for domestic propagation. The program later expanded into cultivation in California and Florida, integrating propagation, farming, analytical testing, manufacturing, distribution, and service within a single organization. - 2020 — Public cGMP Facility Demonstration
During the COVID-19 shutdowns, we used the opportunity to give the kava industry a closer look at what a properly operated cGMP manufacturing facility entails, including the systems, controls, documentation, and quality practices required for compliant production.. View the video HERE - 2022 — Fresh Fijian Kava Program
Expanded the sourcing, preservation, and distribution of fresh Fijian kava for the American market. - 2023 — American Kava Culture Launches
Launched American Kava Culture as a community for growers, researchers, enthusiasts, and industry participants interested in cultivating kava in the United States. The group provides a forum for sharing propagation methods, cultivation experience, plant identification, research, and practical knowledge as American-grown kava continues to develop. - 2024 — Founding Member of the Kava Coalition
Joined as a founding member of the Kava Coalition, working directly with state and local health departments to close the gap between Kava's long safety record and how it was actually being regulated.
These projects were developed in response to recurring industry needs: Better quality verification, more consistent manufacturing, broader access to fresh kava, improved product formats, and a closer connection between cultivation and the finished bowl. All of this while building and running 5 Sacramento area Kava bars that have served over 7 million shells to hundreds of thousands of Kava drinkers.
Contributing beyond our own company
Root of Happiness has also participated in the broader work of developing the kava industry.
Our team has contributed to analytical standards development, regulatory discussions, industry associations, certification initiatives, agricultural programs, and stakeholder working groups. This has included work with the American Kava Association, AOAC International standards panels, the Kava Coalition, American Kava Culture, Pacific exporters, researchers, and government representatives.
We have met with Fiji government ministries and trade delegations in both the United States and Fiji (photo) to discuss product quality, agricultural development, analytical testing, market access, regulation, and the long-term relationship between Pacific producers and the expanding American kava market.
This work is not separate from our commercial operations. It reflects the same principle that has guided the company since 2006: the future of kava depends on quality that can be demonstrated, systems that can be trusted, and relationships that respect both the plant and the cultures from which it comes.
Connected from farm to shell
Today, Root of Happiness operates across the entire Kava supply chain:
- Sourcing and wholesale
Working with growers, exporters, kava bars, retailers, manufacturers, and individual customers. - Manufacturing
Producing extracts, concentrates, beverages, powdered products, and finished formulations in our own facilities. - Analytical testing
Using laboratory analysis and rapid screening tools to evaluate identity, composition, consistency, and quality. - Kava bars
Serving kava directly through our own locations and applying our sourcing and production standards in a real hospitality environment. - American cultivation
Growing Kali Kava in California and Florida while developing the knowledge required for kava to become a viable American specialty crop. - Industry development
Participating in standards work, regulatory dialogue, government consultations, working groups, and organizations concerned with the future of kava.
Operating across these areas gives us direct visibility into how decisions at one stage affect every stage that follows. Cultivation affects chemistry. Processing affects quality. Manufacturing affects consistency. The experience at the bar reveals whether all of those systems worked as intended.
We're still asking the same question:
From the farm and laboratory to manufacturing and service, our work continues to return to the question that started Root of Happiness in 2006:
"Is this the best kava we can provide?"
We never assume the answer. We continue sourcing, testing, studying, cultivating, improving and innovating so that every product bearing the Root of Happiness name reflects the standard we have spent nearly two decades developing.