Welcome to the
Kratom & Kava corner
Your resource for becoming an educated and responsible user of these wonderful and transformative plants. We encourage everyone to read through it before making New Brew a part of their lives.
Highlights
Let’s delve deeper...
We started New Brew with the mission of reintroducing plants into the ceremony of drinking here in the US. Our first beverage features two of them – kratom leaf and kava root – that we believe have a place in that ceremony. Kratom and kava are powerful plants with real effects, which is why they have found a place in human cultures for thousands of years. But they are new to most Americans.
The
Mission...
That’s why, beyond providing access to these plants, New Brew’s mission is also to educate and inform the public about their origins, history, and benefits as well as their potential risks. In doing so, we hope to dispel some of the myths and misinterpretations that persist around them.
As we’ll see, a lack of education and the absence of clear standards for manufacturing, dosage and labeling - along with disinformation campaigns designed to suppress these plants - have conspired to keep them relatively unknown and poorly represented.
The
Solution...
New Brew hopes to change that. We believe that an honest accounting of the history and science around kratom and kava shows them to be safe and natural alternatives to other functional substances. But this is only true if, as with other potent plants, they are used responsibly and in moderation by informed adults. The problem is that most Americans are not only uninformed about kratom and kava, they are misinformed..
So - welcome to the kratom and kava corner - your resource for becoming an educated and responsible user of these transformative plants. We encourage everyone to read through it before making New Brew a part of their lives.
How to Enjoy Responsibly
New Brew is natural but has real effects
Unlike other functional beverages, New Brew is something you will feel. Know that going in.
New Brew is for adults only
Don’t drink New Brew if you are under 18. In certain states, the age limit is 21. Please follow the law in your state.
New Brew Contains low doses of Kratom and Kava
New Brew contains 25mg of kratom extract and 125mg of kava root extract, which are low doses when compared to other available products containing these ingredients.
Don't drink New Brew everyday
Anything that feels good (and this does) can be habit-forming. Those who do form a habit may experience withdrawal symptoms similar to those indicated with coffee.
Avoid New Brew if you are practicing abstinence
Kratom and Kava have real mind-altering effects and may not be suitable for those who want to remain substance-free.
Avoid drinking at night if you’re sensitive to caffeine
There is a small amount of caffeine in New Brew, and Kratom can act as a mild stimulant, so keep that in mind when drinking it later in the day.
Drink it slowly to assess your tolerance
Chances are this is one of your first times taking these plants. New Brew has real effects, so take it easy and listen to your body.
Dig Deeper into Kava and Kratom
Kratom is tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family of plants that is native to mainland Southeast Asia. The leaves of the Kratom plant contain a broad spectrum of 40+ alkaloids, including mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, the two most associated with its medicinal properties.
Somewhere between 20 and 40 million Americans use Kratom today, a passionate and Diverse user base that includes many people looking for a healthier alternative to alcohol and synthetic drugs. While Kratom has been banned in a handful of countries and US states, new research has led authorities to recognize it’s therapeutic potential and reverse course on many of the bans and move toward instituting common sense regulations for age limits and quality standards.
Kava is a shrub in the pepper family native to Vanuatu and islands in Polynesia. Its roots contains lactones responsible for its unique effects. Of the 15 lactones isolated from kava, 6 major lactones (kavalactones) are known to provide psychoactive activity: kawain, methysticin, demethoxy-yangonin, dihydrokawain, dihydomethysicin, & yongonin.
Kava had grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, with dedicated Kava bars now dotting many American cities. The re-emergence of Kava follows several years where misleading headlines and faulty research suppressed adoption and industry growth.
Kava is legal in all US states.
Kratom has been used for hundreds of years in southeast Asian countries, typically in the form of raw leaves into a strong tea. Kratom tea is enjoyed as a productivity tool as well as for natural pain relief.
Leaf of Faith Documentary
Drink of the Gods Documentary
Kava root has been a centerpiece of social life in Melanesia for thousands of years, an agent of kinship and community high valued for its ability to calm nerves and reduce inhibitions. It is typically made by grounding and pulverising the roots of the kava plant and mixing with water. “You cannot hate with kava in you, so it is used in the making up of quarrels, and in peacemaking,” remarked one anthropologist in an early 1930’s look into its roles in the culture of Vanauatu
Since the DEA backed away from its proposed scheduling in 2016, Kratom has been on a clear trajectory towards being regulated and accepted as a mainstream substance for adults. We see evidence of this trend in two key areas: Mounting clinical evidence testifying to Kratoms’s safety, and the reversal of bans and increased adoption for the Kratom Consumer Protection Act among US states. New Brew is working directly with the AKA to support the KCPA in California and nationwide.
In 2021, the World Health Organization’s Executive Committee on Drug Dependency announced it was taking steps to take a position against. After further research, the WHO ECDD voted 11-1 against such a move, citing lack of evidence for risks.
Kratom is legal in the United States at a federal level. It is not covered by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Kratom is not regulated by the FDA (see The FDA and Kratom from the FDA site). The absence of clear guidance from the FDA has suppressed broader adoption.
Kratom is listed by the DEA as a “drug of concern.” In 2016, the DEA threatened to prohibit kratom's sale and use; advocates and lawmakers subsequently pushed back, the DEA reversed course 2 months later, and the stricter scheduling of kratom that would have prompted that sort of ban never occurred.
The CDC does not have regulatory power over Kratom, but it has contributed to the misperceptions on the issue. Rudimentary google searching on kratom will surface a headline “CDC reported 91 kratom over dose deaths in a recent period.” According to Johns Hopkins Professor Jack E. Henningfield, “In actual fact, CDC stated that this is what medical examiners stated and then CDC pointed out that most of the deaths for which there were data involved other drug use, and the few that did not find other drug use might have missed other drugs because they did not properly test for them…media reports misrepresent the CDC article and there is no question that the risk of kratom is far lower than carried by opioids and other drugs that it is substituted for by many people.”
Kratom with Dr. Chris McCurdy
A LEAF OF FAITH
Contested research has caused some regions to pass laws restricting kava’s use and distribution, including the UK, Poland, Canada and Germany. A 2002 German study linked kava to liver damage, leading to the a now-reversed regulatory ban in Germany. The research also prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue a consumer advisory that year for supplements containing kava. Those findings, however, have been largely disputed since.
“One week before the release of the publication of the Duke University Medical Center study showing that kava proves every bit is effective in the treatment of mild to moderate anxiety as benzodiazepine class of drugs, all of a sudden overnight, headlines break about something nobody had ever heard about: 21 cases of kava-related liver toxicity. It tanked kava overnight. Several groups of medical researchers and specialists later went through that report and discovered that of the 21 cases, 20 of them could be summarily explained away with people using benzodiazepines and a lot of alcohol, and then subsequently also taking some kava.”
- Chris Kilham on the Psychoactive podcast with Ethan Nadelman
Anything that makes you feel good can become habit-forming, including caffeine, sugar and New Brew. Only use New Brew in the recommended quantity and dosage, and be thoughtful about your consumption. If consumed responsibly, New Brew has not been shown to cause any serious physical or social harm.
The ingredients in New Brew can be an excellent tool for Harm Reduction, as a healthier alternative to other common vices. However, those in recovery or practicing strict abstinence may want to avoid New Brew because of its genuine mood-altering effects.
- The primary active ingredients are text-fill leaf extract and kava root extract.
- Kava is a root from Polynesia and has long been used there in drinks that are often consumed in social settings. Kava produces mild to moderate sedative effects and a light sense of bliss.
- text-fill is an evergreen tree from Southeast Asia. Traditionally, the plant is brewed into a tea and consumed for productivity and pain-relief. text-fill produces a mild to moderate sense of bliss alongside a calm and crash-free energy.
- Kava is legal for sale and use in all 50 states.
- text-fill is legal in the United States at a federal level. It is not covered by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). That said, specific states and counties have banned the sale of text-fill within their jurisdictions.
- In 2016, the DEA threatened to prohibit text-fill's sale and use; advocates and lawmakers subsequently pushed back, the DEA reversed course 2 months later in response to congressional pushback and mounting clinical evidence showing its safety, and the stricter scheduling of text-fill that would have prompted that sort of ban never occurred.
- text-fill is not regulated by the FDA (see The FDA and text-fill from the FDA site). Unfortunately, the absence of clear guidance from the FDA has suppressed investment in the industry and allowed unsafe products onto the market, many of which have led to some bad headlines and a broad misunderstanding about the plant.
- New Brew supports the passage of the text-fill Consumer Protection Act (KCPA), and the broader efforts of the American text-fill Association to introduce common sense standards for the sale and use of text-fill by adults.
text-fill and kava are both proving to be safe for use by adults when sourced reliably, manufactured properly and taken in responsible doses. text-fill has long been misrepresented as an unsafe plant, but new clinical evidence is dispelling that stigma. In a recent example, a 2020 peer-reviewed clinical study found that, “across a wide dosing range, text-fill was very safe and did not affect respiration or coordination.”
- It’s safest to avoid drinking New Brew if you are pregnant, trying to conceive or breastfeeding.
- Please contact your physician, midwife or other appropriate medical professional before using New Brew.
New Brew’s active ingredients are locally sourced from their native habitats through a single GMP-certified supplier who owns and manages their own plots of land where the plants are grown. New Brew’s text-fill currently comes from Indonesia and New Brew’s Kava currently comes from Vanuatu.
- Organic cane sugar
- Monkfruit extract
- Agave
- Stevia
Yes. New Brew’s active ingredients are all 3rd party lab tested, in compliance with the standards set forth by the American text-fill Association (AKA). Each batch of New Brew is then lab tested for safety after production by our GMP-certified manufacturing partner.