Morgan Smith Bought His Dead Friend's Business & Now Is Changing the Entire Kava Industry

Morgan Smith, owner of Kalm with Kava, shares the story of how he took over a kava business from his late friend Mike Munsell — and turned it into a mission-driven company rooted in respect, education, and long-term sustainability.

In this episode, we dig into:

• The redemption arc behind Kalm with Kava — from losing a close friend to carrying on his legacy
• What kava actually is, how it's prepared, and why it's been used for 3,000 years across the South Pacific
• How Morgan went from pharmaceuticals that "took him out of his mind" to finding a natural alternative
• The $20 billion alcohol surplus and why millennials are driving the sober-curious movement
• Navigating cultural sensitivity as a non-Polynesian in a deeply Polynesian space
• Why there's no exit strategy — and why venture capital could ruin kava
• The supply chain reality: kava takes 3–5 years to grow and can't just be shipped as seeds
• How kava bars, gummies, seltzers, and farm education are spreading the word
• Why Morgan believes kava could become a premium category at corporate events and fundraisers

Connect with Morgan & Kalm with Kava:

• Website: kalmwithkava.com (Kalm with a K)
• Amazon: Search "Kalm with Kava"
• Instagram, TikTok, YouTube: @kalmwithkava
• Farm: Puiwa Farms Hawaii (on all socials)
• Email: morgan@kalmwithkava.com

Transcript

Rob Pene (00:01.969)

Okay, this is gonna be fun with Morgan from it's Calm with Kava. That's right. Calm with Kava. think what's really appealing to me is the whole movement of the Kava thing. My hope is to get some insight, but also possibly some inspiration, you know, on how you built the business, but also maybe a little bit of behind the scenes.

on why kava. So I'm very, interested, Before we get started, I do have a question that I usually kind of kick kickstart the the interview with. If you're if you were to

Morgan Smith (00:42.068)

Sorry, my, I've got a light that turned off. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Rob Pene (00:47.585)

Sweet.

Morgan Smith (00:51.584)

Okay, so, let's not turn it back on. This is awkward.

Rob Pene (00:54.561)

You should be good.

Rob Pene (00:58.677)

No, that's cool. It's OK.

Morgan Smith (01:01.546)

good, okay. I will... I'm sorry man.

Rob Pene (01:04.288)

Right.

As long as the audio is good, think we should be fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because it's about the story. Yeah.

Morgan Smith (01:09.55)

Okay.

Morgan Smith (01:15.564)

Yeah, sure, sure, sure, Here, we'll go with some of that. There we go. Yeah, natural lighting works just fine. So sorry about that. I don't know if you want to restart this thing.

Rob Pene (01:20.042)

well, natural lighting, you can't beat natural lighting.

Yeah.

Rob Pene (01:29.717)

No, we're good, dude. Yeah, this is, so the, I'm naturally curious about people. In 2024, at one point I couldn't walk, talk, eat or sleep. 2025, I'm like, dude, I need to be a steward of my voice. That's why I started the podcast. And I just really have people that I'm genuinely curious about. So this is fine. We keep it natural and all that stuff. But you know, in the last,

six to 12 months of your life in business, if you were to reflect back on that and turn it into a Netflix movie, what would the movie be about in the last six to 12 months?

Morgan Smith (02:13.294)

It would have a pretty incredible character arc from someone who was very nervous and anxious about a business and who is still maybe nervous and anxious about a business but has learned a lot along the way about the types of people to get involved with in business and

Rob Pene (02:37.962)

Hmm

Morgan Smith (02:38.702)

a lot of mistakes that were made that now we've learned from and we're better from. And I feel like family, of course, is a big part of it, like why I do what I do for my wife, my kids. And yeah, it'd be a maybe a little bit of a redemption story.

Rob Pene (02:56.321)

Any.

Rob Pene (03:05.845)

Ooh, ooh, okay, I like that, I like that. So guys, this is Morgan Smith with the redemption story. So we're gonna ask first about the mistakes, because usually that's where the juice is at. That's where the sauce is at, man. So now did Come With Kava start recently, or was it something that you built and experienced throughout the years? Or what's the story behind that?

Morgan Smith (03:32.237)

Yeah, so Kalamazkaava started in 2010 by my good buddy Mike Munsell and Mike and I worked together for many years in the kava industry. He first started it because he visited Fiji in 2009 with his wife on a honeymoon and they found kava for the first time which is a it's a drink and a plant that's grown in the South Pacific and you kind of make it into a bit of a tea.

Rob Pene (03:35.521)

Morgan Smith (03:56.879)

and it helps you kind of relax and calm down. And he really liked it. And in the US at the time, you couldn't really find it. It was something that was difficult to find because, you know, it's grown in third world countries that are halfway across the world over the ocean. And not many people were in the Cava industry then. And so he started to import himself and he grew it quite a lot. And we worked together for many, many years. And in 2020, he passed away and

I was obviously great friends with him and his wife is great friends with my wife. And so we would always hang out. you know, so Comoth Cava to me was, you know, it's an extension of Mike. It was an extension of my friend. And Tiffany has some health issues, Mike's wife, and she said she was going to shut the company down. And I said, no, the hell you're not. So.

I bought it from her and I continue to run it today.

Rob Pene (04:56.275)

Nice. The mistakes. So if you were to encourage your 18 year old self on things to stay away from, what are the top three things that you'd be Yeah, Beware.

Morgan Smith (05:12.95)

I think the first thing is go with your gut. My gut has almost never lied to me. I think that when you start to question yourself and the reason why you started to do something, there's a reason that you came to that conclusion. There's a reason why you said, this is what I believe and this is what I'm going to do. Now, I'm not saying you should ever change your mind.

Rob Pene (05:20.001)

Hmm

Morgan Smith (05:39.949)

I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to other people and take their advice. But what I am saying is that if you feel something where you don't really feel comfortable or you don't feel safe or you don't feel like, you know, the, you know, the, the, your core values, you know, if your core values are being questioned, that's a problem. and I think that that's, that's kind of the number one thing.

Rob Pene (05:50.891)

Mmm.

Rob Pene (05:58.677)

Hmm.

Morgan Smith (06:03.224)

You so often I feel like in life and in business, right? Look, I run a small business. I don't know everything about business. I'm a dummy. You know, I'm learning as I go. And you want things to work out. And you really want to get people to understand that, you're...

Well, you want people to hear about you. You want your business to succeed. You want the people around you to succeed. And so sometimes when you see opportunities, if they sound too good to be true, they likely are. And if you see things that somewhat make you question your ethics or make you kind of change your moral grounds, that's a problem and you should not go in that direction.

Rob Pene (06:50.081)

Trust your gut. Okay, that's interesting. Now, what would you say to someone that typically their instinctual nature, their gut, right, is oftentimes rooted in some kind of fear or insecurity or doubt, but it's masked as, my instincts? Well, how would you counsel that type of mind frame?

Morgan Smith (07:17.262)

You know, I don't know. I wish I was an oracle of all the wisdom in the world. I do feel like throughout my life I've had imposter syndrome where I just feel like I'm not good enough. I don't know enough. I'm not educated enough.

Rob Pene (07:36.993)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (07:44.203)

And it took me, you know, growing up a little bit to realize that literally everyone is making things up. Every person on this planet is just doing what they think they should be doing. And whether you're educated or not, it really does not dictate your capability. And I think that you need to...

Rob Pene (07:51.156)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (08:06.261)

Mmm.

Morgan Smith (08:09.612)

you need to recognize that, you know, I'm not an expert in all things. can tell you, I'm an expert in Kava, but there were times in the past two or three years where people made me question whether I was. looking back on it, I'm like, that's crazy. You know, like I've been doing this for 10, 12 years. I own a Kava farm. I've been to the islands. I know all about that stuff, right? I've, I've looked at the science. I've talked to, I've talked to literally like the top.

Rob Pene (08:22.729)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (08:38.638)

researchers in this field. And that's a small field. you know, I don't know how much that's saying, but to me, they're important, right? They're guys that are really, really smart. And so to have me question my own intelligence or my own capabilities is wild. And I'm never going to make that mistake again. I'm an expert in kava. That's it. You can't make me question that.

Rob Pene (08:50.015)

YAH!

Rob Pene (08:55.241)

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, that's that I love that. That's really, really good. So specifically, a cover. Can you break down what cover, you know, you mentioned it's a it's, you know, planted and soil and all that stuff like what what is cover?

Morgan Smith (09:17.752)

So kava is a plant that has been growing in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia for about 3,000 years. It has psychoactive effects. The roots and the stump of the plant are taken and ground down, sometimes turned into a powder or sometimes consumed fresh from the ground. You combine it with water and

Rob Pene (09:41.151)

EW

Morgan Smith (09:43.727)

You strain out some of woody fibers of the plant and you're left with this drink that is very bitter. Kava in Tongan means bitter.

And it's very piney. It's a member of the pepper family. And so it's got kind of not spicy, but kind of, you know, in that kind of world, right, those types of kind of earthy flavors, earthy kind of spicy pinecone kind of flavors. And it helps you relax and it helps you kind of chill out without having any of the long term addictive issues that you see from a lot of other plants or other substances like pharmaceuticals. Right. So

Rob Pene (10:00.448)

Hello.

Morgan Smith (10:26.174)

It's something that I think can be a godsend for a lot of people. It was for me, and that's why I'm here talking about it because there was a point in my life where I was very stressed and anxious and went to the doctor. She prescribed me some things that ended up taking me out of my mind. I was a young father with a family I needed to take care of and those substances were not good for me. So I needed to find an alternative and CAVA was that.

Rob Pene (10:30.593)

No.

Rob Pene (10:49.184)

Hmm.

Rob Pene (10:54.495)

Wow. So it has that medicinal type of like, it'll it'll help in the healing process of certain things. Yeah.

Morgan Smith (11:01.144)

So I'm registered with the FDA. I'm a manufacturer and I bring that up because I cannot make any medical claims about kava. It's considered a food or a dietary supplement. If I make medical claims that turns it into a drug.

Rob Pene (11:09.77)

Hmm.

Morgan Smith (11:17.07)

I'm not selling a drug. So I'm selling a food or a supplement. What I can tell you is that people have been using it for millennia to Connect with one another. It's kind of like a Polynesian peace pipe in a way It's it's a good. Yeah, it's a good social lubricant. It's People normally drink it in the in the afternoons or evenings because it helps you really wind down and and kind of kind of you know

Rob Pene (11:30.901)

Mm-hmm. That's good.

Rob Pene (11:42.081)

Morgan Smith (11:44.929)

make your thoughts a little bit more subtle so you're not so in burden by those struggles of the day. So that's kind of how kava feels. It's a little bit euphoric, it's a little bit sedative, but it doesn't knock you out and it doesn't put you out of your usual sort of way of thinking.

So you can still think clearly, you can still make good decisions, but you're just going to have, you're going to feel the weight come off your shoulders a little bit, you know, and you're going to be able to kind of just chill and relax a little bit more.

Rob Pene (12:20.873)

Yeah, so it's like the relaxing drink. Yeah, without getting drunk. Yeah.

Morgan Smith (12:25.934)

Correct. Yeah. People try to equate it with alcohol and they try to call it an alcohol alternative. And, you know, some might use it as that. I don't really look at that in the same way because I feel like it cheapens what kava is. I personally, I don't drink alcohol and I don't smoke marijuana. I don't do, I don't have any pharmaceuticals in my body. You know, I'm just, now I'm not saying that I don't, I would never.

have any pharmaceuticals. My brother's a surgeon. My wife is a nurse. I believe in Western medicine. But I'm just saying that from a day-to-day perspective, those are things that I generally avoid because they're often not great long-term. And so I tend to focus on things like HAVA that can help me kind of deal with things without having any long-term impacts.

Rob Pene (13:27.541)

The ideal market for kava, is it more older, older people or does it work for like younger, young adults, college age? What's the demographic for it?

Morgan Smith (13:31.042)

Mm-hmm.

Morgan Smith (13:41.583)

25 to 35 years old. Millennials are loving Kava. It is starting to skew younger because I think that the younger generation, know, obviously Millennials, we've all seen our parents or grandparents or our drunk uncle at Christmas, right? And it's just not something that a lot of Millennials want.

you if you look at any of the headlines, it always says, yeah, millennials are killing every single industry. Well, they're killing the alcohol industry. I just saw a headline the other day on CBS. said that they said that there's a lake of alcohol that has not yet been sold. And it was somewhere in like the 20 billion dollar range that they normally would have sold by this point in the year. And that's not happening. And that's because people realize that there's a better way of living and alcohol is not necessarily

Rob Pene (14:27.254)

Thanks.

Morgan Smith (14:36.08)

necessarily part of it. Now, a lot of people aren't saying no alcohol. A lot of people are just saying less alcohol, right? I mean, how many times have you heard someone go, you know, I'd like a drink right now, but I don't want to deal with it tomorrow. You know, like, it's just, it's just how it is, especially the older you get, the less your body can deal with the, you know, the issues that come from alcohol. And so, you know, Kawa has a potential for someone that might be, you know, looking for an alternative.

Rob Pene (14:55.2)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (15:03.849)

Yeah, yeah. Now, you guys always online? Did you start selling online direct to consumer? Or did you do smaller trade shows or farmer's market?

Morgan Smith (15:08.141)

Mm-hmm.

Morgan Smith (15:14.956)

Yeah, so we do some we do some trade shows. We do some music festivals, but for the most part, we're online. Yeah, there are Kava bars. So, you know, around the US right now, there's probably five or 600 of them. If you live in a major city, there's a very good chance that there's a Kava bar pretty close to you.

Rob Pene (15:19.801)

yeah.

Rob Pene (15:25.921)

Thank you.

Morgan Smith (15:35.798)

That's where a lot of people are finding out about kava. In the pandemic, lot of people were, they were drinking a lot and a lot of people realized they had an issue or they were hanging out at home and they wanted a different thing to try out. so kava became very popular in the pandemic. then ever since then, it's just been kind of growing in popularity.

Rob Pene (15:54.676)

Yeah, yeah, Hookah lounges. Do you guys, are you in a lot of those too?

Morgan Smith (16:00.428)

In a couple. Yeah, in a couple. Yep.

Rob Pene (16:04.309)

Yeah, it seems like that might be a natural fit. Yeah. Now I noticed the gummies are on the site. So you sell powder and then gummies and other things too?

Morgan Smith (16:07.522)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (16:20.63)

Yeah, so I import whole roots from the islands.

And that way I know that there's no contaminants. I know there's nothing wrong with the kava itself. I know that I can see just with my eyes. We sterilize everything. Then we get it lab tested to make sure that it's all clean and that it's pure and that it's good. And then we take that and we grind it down into powders that are like traditionally prepared powders. And then we also have some instant varieties that you can just stir right into drinks. And then there's some other ones that are made from extracts of kava.

like you're talking about with the gummies, where we take that same powder and we use CO2 to extract kava lactones, which are the main kind of active ingredients or active compounds of kava, and we take that and we make things like gummies or...

Rob Pene (17:05.301)

Any.

Morgan Smith (17:13.358)

We also have like concentrates, so we take that extract and we mix it with some juices or there's also a company that we partnered with called Dahonu Life and they have like a seltzer, like a kava based seltzer.

Rob Pene (17:26.037)

Yeah, yeah. that's cool. So are you from the islands? Did you grow up in the islands or where are you from and how did you end up like with the whole island kind of lifestyle?

Morgan Smith (17:36.992)

Yeah, good question. So my family is from the islands, the British islands.

Look, I'm as white as they come, my guy. I'm 75 % English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish.

The other 25 % Germanic and Slavic, Norway, Sweden, that sort of area. So I'm as pale as can be, right? And I always tell people that my ancestors were distilling whiskey and that didn't do a whole lot of good for the world. And so I'm hoping with this Cava business that we can kind of reverse some of that.

Rob Pene (18:00.724)

I love it.

Rob Pene (18:15.465)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (18:20.876)

But no, I'm not from the islands. But I've spent a lot of time there, right? We have a kava farm on the big island of Hawaii where I spent a lot of time, obviously, and we grow kava there. I spent a lot of time in Vanuatu, which is west of Fiji. I spent a lot of time in Fiji. In a couple months, I'm gonna be going to Tonga. So...

Rob Pene (18:37.749)

Wow.

Morgan Smith (18:45.942)

I routinely go down to the South Pacific to make sure that the relationships that I have with the South Pacific suppliers are good, that the people growing CAVA kind of understand where we're coming from and the issues that we're seeing on our side so that we can kind of help to change. You if we see issues with product coming in or maybe there's sustainability questions, CAVA takes between three to five years to grow.

And so if you're not planting enough today in three years, four or five years, there's going to be a shortage. How are you going to handle that? And what are you going to do? Right. And so it's about really like setting expectations for the future to say, look, I'm not going anywhere. You know, I've been working with these suppliers between myself and Mike. We've been working with these suppliers for

Rob Pene (19:11.307)

Thank you.

Morgan Smith (19:32.494)

10, 12 years. And so I want them to understand that there's long-term potential and so that relationship really needs to be good. So while I'm not from the islands, I certainly spend a lot of time there and I'm intimately familiar with their families and some of their customs. I'm certainly not an expert in their culture but I've experienced a lot of it, you know.

Rob Pene (19:57.217)

Yeah. Yeah. Have you had any pushback from the the the islander community? You know, yeah.

Morgan Smith (20:03.918)

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah, mean, look, so kava is a canoe plant, right? Way back when you were hanging out with your family and for one reason or another, you thought that the island that you were living on was not right for you or your family. And you decided to load up all of your belongings.

and all of your important things like plants and food onto your canoes and you ventured out into the ocean hoping that you would find land again. And it's a pretty wild prospect. And one of those canoe plants was kava.

Rob Pene (20:33.921)

Bye.

Rob Pene (20:46.624)

Mm-hmm.

Morgan Smith (20:46.9)

It was one of the that's why we have so many different types of it today. We over 100 different types today. It's because it encountered different cultures that consumed it differently, that treated it differently. The soils were different on all of these islands. The weather is different on different islands. And so that changed Kava's growing habits. you know, and so what that tells you is that Kava was incredibly important to the voyagers thousands of years ago and those families.

Rob Pene (20:51.86)

Morgan Smith (21:15.406)

And indeed, it's still important today. You know, if you go to Fiji, you'll see, you know, the images of a Tanoa, which is a kava bowl everywhere. If you go to Vanuatu, you'll see Nakaumals, which are these village kind of community centers where they drink kava. You'll see them everywhere.

You know, you go to Tonga and they have Fai Kava, which is a kava, you know, event where people gather around a bowl of kava and they talk about the issues of the day today, right? They do that all the time. You know, you go to Fiji, they've got something called Talanoa where they do the same kind of thing. In Hawaii, you see those same things today where they have ceremonial rituals, you know, all sorts of different reasons to use Ava, as they call it, their

Rob Pene (22:02.625)

Hmm.

Morgan Smith (22:03.65)

cultural or ceremonial usage. So when you have an outsider like me come in and profess that they're an expert in kava, that could be very offensive, right? And so I recognize that. I don't, I'm definitely not someone who wants to be the person that like, you know, rubs people the wrong way. And so the very first thing that I'll always say, I said earlier, right? I'm not Polynesian.

Rob Pene (22:13.697)

in the hear.

Morgan Smith (22:33.494)

I'm not Melanesian, I'm not Micronesian. My family did not bring kava to us. They have not been farming it for 3,000 years. All that I can tell you is I know the industry today in America and I know how to grow it from our farm in Hawaii. And I try to treat it with as much respect as possible. And I recognize that that's my place in the world. And if I can help people with kava, then I will.

And I want to continue to make sure that Kava is available for many, many, many generations. That's my contribution.

Rob Pene (23:04.799)

Mmm.

Yeah, yeah. What's the ultimate goal with the business? Is it a legacy play to pass it on or to exit and then do something different?

Morgan Smith (23:18.926)

there's, there's, there's no selling this. This is not a, this is, you know, my concern is, if you look at any company, any company, I think about restaurants a lot.

I love restaurants. I'm a foodie. really like to enjoy, you know, random little things here and there. My wife and I like to enjoy, you know, fancy kind of food every once in a while. And we're not even fancy, right? Just good food, whatever it is. It's got to be just good food. I like good food. And, you know, you always see these restaurants who are great. And then a couple of years later, some venture capital group buys them and they ruin them. They ruin the brand. They ruin the food. They ruin the whole business.

Rob Pene (23:56.767)

Hmm.

Morgan Smith (24:02.47)

And I think that kava is too important to ruin like that. So there's no exit. This is, I don't know where that is going to take me, but this is what I'm going to do the rest of my life.

Rob Pene (24:06.303)

Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (24:15.969)

Yeah, yeah, Man, I'd think, because I know that there is other Polynesian kavaka. I see it on social. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So I imagine that there could be some kind of partnership that might be a little easier for expansion. You know what mean?

Morgan Smith (24:24.707)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (24:33.696)

yeah.

Rob Pene (24:41.227)

Have you had those kinds of conversations, people coming up to you, or is it more like, yo, what are you doing? Yeah.

Morgan Smith (24:46.848)

It's both, right? people, I mean, look, I hang out with Polynesians all the time, like all the time, right? All different flavors, right? And so I've heard everything and I've sat down with them and drank Java with them and I've turned non-believers into believers and I've probably turned some believers into non-believers. I don't know. I think that the major thing to take away from any

Rob Pene (24:55.199)

All good.

Rob Pene (25:01.662)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (25:11.265)

Yes, you knew that.

Morgan Smith (25:16.622)

business, especially one like mine that's very culturally sensitive, is that you have to listen. If I'm listening and I'm comprehending what they're saying, I'm going to take bits and pieces and make sure that like I'm not going to make them mad. I don't want to make anyone mad. I want to respect them. I want to respect their culture. I want to respect what they've been doing.

Rob Pene (25:22.102)

I'm here.

Mm.

Rob Pene (25:33.397)

Yeah, yeah.

Morgan Smith (25:41.345)

you know, the people that are naysayers that say, well, you're a white guy. You should not be selling kava. First off, I live in America. I cannot hire someone based on race. I cannot hire someone based on gender. I cannot hire someone based on religious affiliation. And I can't fire based on those things either. And so I think that first and foremost, I think that equality is very important. Second,

all of these farmers that are growing kava in the South Pacific, they have very little economic opportunity outside of this. Vanuatu, their GDP is 55 to 60 percent from kava. That's what they make their money on. If you want me to stop selling kava in America, I want you to go to Vanuatu and I want you to explain to them why they're not getting a paycheck anymore.

Rob Pene (26:19.455)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (26:26.506)

Hmm.

Morgan Smith (26:38.06)

You want to tell those people that literally have nothing but kava that they shouldn't have a business and they shouldn't let their children go to school and afford, you know, tuition and clothing for their schooling and food, you know, all because they don't want a white guy selling kava. I think that's wrong. I think that's wrong from a huge, from a variety of levels. And that's true in Vanuatu. It's true in Fiji.

It's true in Tonga. It's true in Samoa. It's true all over the place. So, you know, I just disagree with it hugely because it's not just about me. You have to understand that behind me, I've got literally thousands of people that I'm buying their kava from. So, sure, you want to stop that? Go for it. But I think that you're doing a detriment to those people.

Rob Pene (27:15.585)

Mm-hmm.

Rob Pene (27:25.758)

Wow.

Rob Pene (27:29.633)

Yeah

Rob Pene (27:34.271)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how do we get the word? I mean, you're doing podcasts, right? So are you anything else to get the word out? Because obviously it's a noble cause and you're a bona fide thought leader and expert, you know? So I think those two is huge. Now it's just the, right, the machine. Outside of podcasts, are you anything else?

Morgan Smith (27:40.472)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (27:58.797)

Yeah, I mean, I do all sorts of things. know, of course, podcasts, we advertise a lot. I'm on social media all the time. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm losing some of my dignity every time I get on one of those platforms. But, you know, here we are trying to make this machine work. We do a lot of outreach, local community programs on the Big Island.

We reach out to schools and have them come and check things out and work with them. We work with local community leaders, local farmer farming cooperatives. We work with the Ulu Co-op on the big island. They're a big they do a breadfruit.

As far as Kalamath Kava, we do everything that we can to get the word out there with kava bars. So I really want to make sure that when someone walks into a kava bar, that they understand really what it is. I don't want someone to walk into a kava bar and leave thinking, I don't understand what kava is or where it comes from or who farmed it. I think that the number one thing that... And this actually goes back to the previous topic. I think that...

You know, kava is an invention of the South Pacific people. It is something that they made. You cannot have kava without them. So you cannot separate those people. And so when you say that kava is just a drink, that's wrong. Kava is a drink and it's a plant. And that plant was made by people. Without the people, kava doesn't exist. And that's the education that I'm bringing to people is that there are three things that we're talking about here.

Rob Pene (29:22.101)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (29:25.684)

Mmm.

Morgan Smith (29:41.231)

We're not just talking about, I'm going to drink some Cava and feel relaxed. We're talking about, I'm going to drink something that families for 3000 years struggled and toiled and took across the sea to bring to me. And I'm very grateful for that. And I feel like people should also respect the efforts that went through to make that happen. It's a crazy, crazy story.

Rob Pene (30:00.063)

You

Rob Pene (30:07.691)

Yeah, it almost seems like this could be a category creator, you know, or it's like, I mean, it could be celebratory, but it's got a certain taste, you know, so maybe not. But it's also because of the story behind it, it could be considered premium, you know, where a lot of like corporations or, you know, those fundraisers might have a kava menu.

Morgan Smith (30:13.486)

Mm.

Morgan Smith (30:20.248)

Yeah. Yeah.

Rob Pene (30:36.457)

You know, because it's exclusive, it's, you know, clearly premium. yeah, I, I think that could be a, you know, an opportunity. Yeah.

Morgan Smith (30:41.55)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (30:47.49)

Yeah, I look, like, I always tell people that if you've never had kava before, what I recommend is buy a bag and invite some friends over. And in this case, you know, what you're talking about here is let's say you have a board meeting and you've got all your business associates around. Instead of having cocktail hour, let's try kava hour.

Rob Pene (31:03.999)

Yeah, yeah.

Rob Pene (31:09.983)

Yeah! Yo!

Morgan Smith (31:11.34)

because I guarantee the conversation will be much better and much more interesting and no one's going to make a fool of themselves. Kava could very well be that.

Rob Pene (31:19.007)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yeah, I can see it at Gay Gayla's big fundraisers. You know all that stuff, dude. man, OK, now we just got to get you out there. Shark Tank.

Morgan Smith (31:26.477)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (31:33.486)

There we go. Yeah, we'll see what Mark has to say.

Rob Pene (31:37.139)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. think the opportunity is wide open. I mean, you're framing it properly in terms of like hitting the exclusivity and the premium piece. So.

Morgan Smith (31:46.658)

Well, I mean, I don't know if I'm exclusive, like there's a lot of people out there. It's a small market, so you may have only heard of me.

Rob Pene (31:54.401)

Well, that's what I mean is Kava is so exclusive because it's so tiny. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Morgan Smith (31:58.839)

Yeah, true, true. I mean, there's also an issue of if kava really truly goes mainstream, it's a problem from a supply perspective because it's only grown in the South Pacific and there's not that many growers of kava and there's not a lot of land area that can grow it. And you need the actual cuttings, pieces of the kava plant to make new kava plants.

Rob Pene (32:07.221)

Wow, wake up.

Rob Pene (32:20.321)

Yeah.

Morgan Smith (32:27.308)

So you can't just ship seeds around the world and hope it works. It has to be a live cutting that is, you know, doing its thing. it's, you know, to get it out of the South Pacific would be very difficult. And from an ethical perspective, probably wrong. But yeah. Yeah. So the current supply really could not handle super mainstream stuff, but you're right. In certain circles, it could be a really big thing.

Rob Pene (32:42.665)

Right. Right.

Rob Pene (32:52.277)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because then your prices would be higher, which means you can pay the team and, you know, in the islands more a little bit. Yeah, just bigger margins. So good, man.

Morgan Smith (32:59.138)

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I mean, that's the idea, right? Like we, we, these guys are out there farming for three to five years. You know, it takes a long time to grow kava. And so they should be properly compensated for that time.

Rob Pene (33:15.777)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what would be like a good let's say I'm just some wealthy nonprofit that's, you know, throwing a dome. And they wanted something like that. What would a typical order be? Would it be in the hundred thousands? And would it be per pound or?

I'm just trying to make sense of my mind just so can start looking around and keeping my eye open. Like, yo, you need to talk to Morgan, man.

Morgan Smith (33:47.631)

Yeah, mean, like from a retail side, a pound of kava will go anywhere between, let's say, $50 and $65, something like that.

Rob Pene (33:59.497)

Morgan Smith (33:59.915)

Wholesale, goes down. It's not a typical wholesale product. Normally wholesale, you'll be getting it at maybe 25, 35 % of the retail price. That is not the case with CAVA. Just because it is such a difficult crop. So normally where you would get retail between 50 and 65 a pound, wholesale would be probably around 35 to $40 a pound.

Rob Pene (34:15.254)

Yeah.

Rob Pene (34:28.673)

Mmm.

Morgan Smith (34:29.47)

And so those, you know, those, you know, I mean, one pound will give you about 45 decent servings. So, know, you could even dilute it more if you really wanted to personally, I wouldn't, think that that's. I don't want that personally, but you know, so, you know, it depends on what you're doing, right? But if you're like a Kava bar or something, those margins are really great because you can charge six, seven, eight dollars, for those, for those servings.

Rob Pene (34:40.203)

Okay.

Morgan Smith (34:59.15)

And, you know, so if you're, just depends on how many people you got and how, how many service each person is going to have. I normally will have four to six servings in an evening, right.

Rob Pene (35:04.289)

Right.

Rob Pene (35:12.385)

yeah, plus it's an acquired taste too. that's Yeah. Yeah, that's a good thing. I like that because it's not for everyone. It's automatically premium. Yeah, automatically.

Morgan Smith (35:15.412)

Yeah, yeah, it's not for everyone. Not for everyone.

Morgan Smith (35:27.714)

I've never thought of it that way, but yeah. Yeah.

Rob Pene (35:30.259)

Yeah. Good, dude. Good job, man. I appreciate you, dude. Yeah, this is great. Yeah, so where can people find the product?

Morgan Smith (35:34.798)

Hey, back at you. Appreciate you for talking to me about it.

Morgan Smith (35:43.454)

at calmwithkava.com and it's calm with a K. So we're on all of our, you know, obviously website, we have Instagram and Tik Tok and YouTube as well. And then our farm is Puiwa Hawaiian Farms. The we're actually changing these a little bit. It's going to be Puiwa Farms Hawaii on all of the socials and yeah, so that's that's where you can find us there as well.

Rob Pene (36:09.535)

Amazon? Can they buy it on Amazon or no? cool.

Morgan Smith (36:12.268)

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Look for Calm with Kava on Amazon. Yep.

Rob Pene (36:16.991)

Nice. Well, that's good. Yeah, awesome. Dude, good job, man. This is exciting. Let's. Shark Tank, dude, I think you should try Shark Tank.

Morgan Smith (36:24.024)

Hey, thanks. it. We're trying. We gotta make things happen.

Morgan Smith (36:32.75)

We'll see. We'll see.

Rob Pene (36:34.689)

Yeah, get the application going dude. I'm gonna email you every quarter. Did you get your application? Did she send you in your application?

Morgan Smith (36:42.766)

Alright, I'll start working on it.

Rob Pene (36:47.809)

Yeah, cool. I appreciate you,

Morgan Smith (36:51.267)

Yeah.