Anyone who’s ever studied kava or tried to find any scholarly materials on kava inevitably encountered the name of Dr Vincent Lebot*. Dr Lebot has authored or co-authored a great number of scholarly publications dedicated to the kava plant, including the famous “Kava: The Pacific Elixir” (co-authored with Lamont Lindstrom and Mark Merlin and published in 1997) and “Buveurs de Kava” (co-authored with Patricia Siméoni and published in 2019), i.e. the two most comprehensive publications on kava ever written.

Not surprisingly, Dr Lebot is often seen the father of modern kava science. It would be difficult to find anyone who has done more to help broaden the Western understanding of both the plant and the beverage. His work on kava and his insights into kava’s history, biology, chemistry and pharmacology have not just inspired multiple other researchers, but also helped and informed government officials, journalists, as well as countless kava drinkers, growers and entrepreneurs.

One of our founding members had the pleasure of sharing some fresh, green kava with Dr Lebot in Port Vila, Vanuatu a while ago. Since then we’ve stayed in touch and occasionally discussed various aspects of kava science and kava industry. After one of the recent interactions, an idea was born to conduct an interview that would allow us to share some of Dr Lebot’s insights with a wider audience. In this interview we discuss such topics as improvements to kava via cultivar selection, challenges to kava becoming more mainstream outside South Pacific, the differences between kava and kava extracts, and many others. We hope you enjoy it.