Kanna and Kava Drinks: What Is Known About the Blend

Several new drinks put kanna and kava in the same can. The labels are clear; the research on the combination is not there.

Walk down the kanna aisle and you will notice that many cans and shots carry two plants: kanna and kava. The pairing is new, mostly launched in the past year, and almost nothing has been written about it that is not marketing. This post looks at which drinks combine them, what the labels say, what regulators and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) say about kava, and where the evidence simply runs out. It does not endorse mixing them.

Which drinks combine kanna and kava?

At least five products on our radar do: two Upstate Elevator lines, GIÓ, and two shots. Kavalactones are the active compounds in kava, and brands list them in milligrams.

Two readings of this table. First, the kava amount per can varies by a factor of five between two Upstate Elevator products, so "a kanna kava drink" is not one thing. Second, the kanna amounts are not comparable across rows: one is a named extract, one is alkaloids, one is unspecified. See how much kanna is in a drink. For prices, ingredients and the rest of the field, use our full comparison.

Why would a brand blend them?

Brands do not say, in anything we checked, that the blend was tested; the likeliest reason is positioning.

Kava is already familiar to people shopping for non-alcoholic drinks, since NCCIH notes kava drinks are sold at kava bars in many U.S. locations [1]. Pairing it with a newer ingredient gives a brand a point of difference. That is our inference, not a statement from any brand. Marketing copy often describes kava as more sedating and kanna as more uplifting. That language is not a finding from controlled studies, as we note in kanna vs kava.

Is there research on kanna and kava together?

We found none. We searched PubMed on October 29, 2026 for Sceletium, kanna or mesembrine alongside kava or Piper methysticum. It returned three results, all general reviews of natural products, and none appeared to be a study of the two together, judging from titles.

That means there is no evidence about how the plants interact, whether in effect or in safety. It does not mean there is no interaction, and it does not mean there is one. It means the question has not been tested. The same is true for the individual brands: none of their blends has been tested in a published trial that we could find.

What do NCCIH and the FDA say about kava?

Both flag a rare but serious risk of liver injury, and NCCIH advises against combining kava with alcohol or sedatives.

NCCIH states that "various kava products have been linked to rare cases of liver injury, some of which have been serious or even fatal," including some cases involving kava drinks made with water [1]. It lists digestive upset, headache and dizziness as possible side effects, advises against using kava with other sedating substances such as benzodiazepines or alcohol, and says kava may carry special risks in pregnancy and breastfeeding [1]. The FDA issued a consumer advisory on March 25, 2002 after case reports of severe liver injury, and the CDC's report on those cases said additional caution by people with pre-existing liver disease or at risk for it might be warranted [2]. The harm is described as rare, and kava has a long traditional use in the Pacific. But the advisory is real. Our kanna vs kava page gives the fuller comparison, and kava vs kratom vs kanna adds kratom.

What are kanna's cautions?

Medication interactions and a lack of pregnancy data, rather than a liver advisory.

WebMD lists headache and upset stomach as common side effects of sceletium, flags possible interactions with MAOIs, SSRIs, SNRIs, tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics, triptans and St. John's wort, says how these interactions work is not fully understood, and notes there are no data on pregnancy or breastfeeding [3]. Kanva's label warns against use with SSRIs or SNRIs [5]. We found no comparable liver advisory for kanna, but its human research is small: short trials in healthy volunteers, mostly of one extract. Less studied and documented concern are different kinds of caution, not a ranking. See is kanna safe.

A blend inherits both lists. Someone who takes an antidepressant, drinks alcohol, has liver disease, takes sedating medicines, or is pregnant or nursing has reasons to ask a clinician before choosing any of these products. We do not suggest combining kanna or kava with alcohol.

What can you check on a blended label?

Five things are worth confirming before you buy any kanna kava product.

• Is the kava amount stated, and in what unit? Kavalactones are the usual one; GIÓ's brand page lists kava with no amount [7].
• Is the kanna amount stated, and is the extract named? Only the Upstate Elevator cans we reviewed name Zembrin [4].
• Are there other actives, such as caffeine, L-theanine or GABA? Utopia's shot lists 25 mg of caffeine per serving [6], and Kanva's lists 50 mg of GABA [5].
• Does the label carry a medication warning? Kanva's does [5].
• How many servings are in the container? Both shots above hold more than one.

If a brand will not tell you what is in the can, that is useful information on its own.

Kanna alone or kanna plus kava?

That is a personal choice, and this site cannot make it a medical one.

Some people choose a kanna-only drink to avoid kava's liver advisory and sedative cautions, or to manage one set of cautions instead of two. Others like the blend. Our comparison page lists which cans keep kanna as the main functional ingredient and which add kava. Whatever you pick, read the amount of each active on the label, check the extract, and be wary of brands that give no milligrams.

This page is general information, not medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Kanna and kava products are not intended for any disease or health condition. Brand details were checked on October 28, 2026 and can change.

References

1. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Kava. nccih.nih.gov
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hepatic toxicity possibly associated with kava-containing products, United States, Germany and Switzerland, 1999-2002. MMWR 2002;51(47). cdc.gov
3. WebMD. Sceletium: uses, side effects, interactions. webmd.com
4. Upstate Elevator. Pink Grapefruit Uplift Spritz and Blackberry Zinger Unwind Soda (product pages, accessed 2026-10-28). Uplift Spritz · Blackberry Zinger
5. Kanva Botanicals. Release + Relax kanna kava relaxing tonic (product page, accessed 2026-10-28). Kanva Botanicals
6. Burmans Health Shop. Utopia Red Kava and Kanna Shot (retailer listing). burmanshealthshop.com
7. GIÓ. Berry Mule (product page, accessed 2026-10-28). Drink GIÓ

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