The drink is created from pressing juice out of fresh kava roots, rather than using a dry powder.

A founder of Auckland city's first kava bar has invented a bottled version of the sedating drink and started exporting it overseas.

The beverage, created at the government-backed FoodBowl facility in south Auckland's Māngere, is the first ever bottle of "green kava" – that is, juice pressed from fresh kava roots.

The vast majority of kava consumed in New Zealand and the Pacific islands is made from straining a dry powder in water.

Jason Dorday/Stuff Four Shells is Auckland city's first kava bar, selling the drink over the counter.

Pacific Roots Kava co-creator Zbigniew Dumienski said it's common practice to turn kava roots into a powder for long-term storage.

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﻿But in Vanuatu, a juice is pressed from the roots and drunk on the spot. The result is a more potent, better-tasting drink that's easier on the stomach, he said.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Four Shells co-founder Anau Mesui Henry drinks a shell of kava, increasingly seen as a healthy alternative to alcohol.

The layperson who has only sampled kava in watered-down tourist ceremonies might be surprised at the strength of Dumienski's creation.

Kava, often maligned and misunderstood in the West, is now growing in popularity, seen as a healthy alternative to alcohol.

It produces relaxing effects without intoxicating the drinker, and preliminary studies suggest it doesn't impair driving.

Dumienski said at present, 90 per cent of his stock was exported to America, where it was sold over the counter in kava bars.

Radio Tarana Waikato-based researcher Dr Apo Aporosa talks to Radio Tarana's Sanjesh Narain about adulterated kava.

It was also available at the Auckland kava bar he co-founded, Four Shells in Victoria Park Markets.

He developed the drink after trying out various machines at the FoodBowl, searching for the best way to press the juice.

The roots arrive frozen from growers in countries across the Pacific including Vanuatu, Tonga and Fiji.

"​No one has ever bottled pure kava. The only bottles you had before were drinks containing extracts," Dumienski said.

"Doing it in New Zealand creates an interesting hub, because it opens new opportunities for the kava growers in the islands.

"Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji growers all want to send their own kava roots here."