At Kava Barista, quality isn’t just a promise—it’s a professional standard. Our founder, Dr. Michael Hillman, is a PhD scientist and former tenured engineering professor at Penn State, with 16+ years in applied science and computational mechanics.

His work—funded by the NSF (including a CAREER Award), the Department of Defense, and private industry—has shaped simulation tools used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sandia National Labs, and top engineering firms.

Dr. Hillman is co-author of the leading book on meshfree methods and has over 1,600 citations on Google Scholar. His CV can be viewed here.

We don’t just claim purity—every batch of our instant kava is third-party tested for microbial safety and contaminants, with full certificates of analysis from trusted vendors. Tested kava doesn’t just meet a higher standard—it feels better, tastes cleaner, and works more reliably.

From sourcing to packaging, we apply the same level of care found in elite research labs—so you can sip with confidence.