nabanga
Kava Enthusiast
I just came across this forum and, prompted by a message from Shakas, thought I would write a brief history of the last 20 years during which I have drank kava regularly, and every night for at least 6 years of that period. I started on the first night I arrived in Vanuatu, before I had ever heard of the internet in 1995.
Whilst a volunteer in Vanuatu for the best part of 4 years I was lucky enough to travel to every island except Mota in the Banks group, and drink kava in nakamals the length of the country. In general the kava in the islands is fresher and stronger than the stuff served up in Vila the capital, and there is much more observance of protocol - low voices, not much talking at all, and the absence of women whilst drinking (except in commercial nakamals on some larger islands like Santo & Malekula) was common across the country. In Tanna and Aniwa in the south, women may not even approach the nakamal whilst it is being used - it is strictly a men-only zone and used to be punished harshly in the old days.
In villages across the country there are usually 2-3 separate nakamals, commercial ones in larger villages where you might pay 20vt/shell as opposed to 50vt in Vila or Luganville. There is usually also a more traditional nakamal where people prepare their own kava - in Tanna for example there may be several small groups of drinkers preparing separately in each corner of the ground.
The most memorable kava nights for me were in Tanna, whilst working in the custom villages in the centre around Yaonanen, Yapilmai and Yakel. After a days work walking through the bush all day assessing water sources we would crouch around a huge banyan tree in the nakamal grounds just before sunset, whilst the younger men and boys pushed chunks of fresh kava root into their already crammed mouths and chewed it up. There is a skill to this, as whenever I tried to chew my own fresh kava I ended up wasted before even drinking a shell. No matter how hard you try not to swallow any concentrate, some gets through. Once chewed up it is put into coconut fibre and water poured through, into a large shell of around 3-400ml. The style in Tanna is to have one huge shell rather than several smaller ones, with many men taking just the one although some take 1-2 plus the "makas". Sitting down on a log under the banyan in the bush clearing, dark falling quickly, you feel the kava come on after a few minutes and the effect is far greater than usually experienced in Vila nakamals and nothing like anything you get from dry powder. Your vision changes to almost tunnel vision snapshots of men walking slowly around bent over in the dusk, or just standing alone in the middle of the clearing looking at the ground, the smell of woodsmoke everywhere. Your ears can start to ring. There is an almost liquid quality to the air and the general sense is of time slowing right down. I often had a second or third, through greed rather than necessity, and often lost my legs when trying to stand when it was time to leave.
One time back in Vila I was visiting friends in a Tanna squatter camp at the plane approach end of the runway of Vila airport. They had set up a traditional Tanna style nakamal there and offered chewed kava and it was a nice change to visit there whilst still close to Vila - a taste of Tanna close to home. The occasional plane coming overhead just 100m above the ground whilst your first shell was kicking in added an extra something. I remember going one night looking for a friend Pierot from Whitesands in Tanna, who I had met on Aniwa the year before when we both got stranded there for 3 weeks after a cyclone. He wasn't there so I had 2 shells of chewed with his brother before leaving - except my legs had completely gone, even though my head felt OK. To get back to the road you had to walk across a log over a river then go another 1km to the main Mele road. They had to carry me through the water to the road and drop me into a passing minibus. In the bus I felt OK again and chatted to the driver, but upon arriving at my flat in town, opened the bus door and fell flat on my face, and had to crawl to my front door.
I was in Vanuatu last year for 3 months and had the pleasure of revisiting this Tanna community on the edge of Port Vila, where they have now set up a commercial nakamal by the main road. It is not chewed, but was of far better quality and freshness than 99% of places in town. Many of the Yakel & Yaonanen people were there and conversations were picked up from 15-20 years before like no time had passed - which is very common in in Vanuatu. Sadly the recent cyclone removed this nakamal and the housing belonging to the community behind it.
A different kava experience was to be had in Penama province - Pentecost, Maewo & Ambae. The traditional nakamals were longhouses with ground ovens in the centre, and sometimes, like in Lihuik above Melsisi on Pentecost, had bamboo bunks for drinkers to sleep in rather than go home. The kava was usually made in a "rammer" - a large mortar and pestle arrangement usually made from a short length of PVC pipe set into concrete. More traditionally it was made by hand-grinding it with a piece of dead coral, like a rasp. This too was good and strong, although several smaller (or normal size) shells are drunk instead of 1-2 huge ones like in Tanna.
Back in Port Vila there was always a vibrant kava scene with around 150 commercial nakamals at that time. There were always 2-3 taken over by expats, and the favourite would change from time to time. A favourite around 1995-97 was "PJ's" which was behind and above Independence Park on Rue Collardeu, with a stunning view over the harbour and sunset. The kava was famous for its strength, but also tasted terrible and could make the most hardened drinker retch, but we kept going back every night like moths to the flame. I think they didn't spend much effort cleaning the skin off.
Other famous expat places were Ronnies at Nambatu (recently destroyed by Pam) and the Red Light at Seaside Tongoa. Much of the time though I would drop in to PJ's then get a bus into Ohlen or Namburu, places where foreigners didn't generally go to drink, and look out good Tanna or Pentecost nakamals. Once you get to know the regular crowd at each place you used to get special rounds of coral ground or chewed kava made to order. I often used to walk back home with one eye shut as double vision could come on quickly with just one extra shell.
I only ever came across tudei (2-day) kava once in Mota Lava in the north. It hit me hard and all the next day I was too kava-sick to move, and the second day was like a normal kava hangover (general slackness, slow minded). There are many varieties of the kava family that are not suitable for drinking and I think tudei is borderline poisonous and never drank by choice. Once in central Epi we came across an abandoned village that had relocated to the coast, and the local with me showed me some kava plants like trees - 6-8m tall - and said that they grew them before for poison not for drinking.
After leaving Vanuatu in 1999 I have been back many times but have also spent 4 years in Samoa and Tonga. Whilst kava is drunk there traditionally, usually by older men in the market house or at traditional meetings, there is nothing like the kava culture found in Vanuatu. Here I used to buy powder and mix it at home. In Polynesia the preference is for dry kava, it is never prepared fresh/green, although you can find a farmer who will bring you a few kilos of the fresh stuff.
Many people have their own favourite way of mixing, but after much experimentation, I find that using hand-hot water to mix whilst having about 100g kava per litre works best. The kava is inside a womens fine ankle stocking and you nead and massage the kava till the "soapy" feel goes and you are left with just a "sawdust" feel. I then filter the kava back through the stocking 3 times, washing bowls and stocking each time in between. Then let the kava cool before drinking. For a strong mix you are looking for a darker colour and bubbles on the surface that do not burst quickly.
Health effects - I have never had any other than the slack feeling the next day. Just recently I have started to get an allergic reaction, a red itchy face the next day. I am hoping that this is because my kava stockpile is now nearly 2 years old, and not something more dubious. I think the key for regular kava drinkers is to drink plenty of water during the day, in anticipation of 5pm rolling round again....
Whilst a volunteer in Vanuatu for the best part of 4 years I was lucky enough to travel to every island except Mota in the Banks group, and drink kava in nakamals the length of the country. In general the kava in the islands is fresher and stronger than the stuff served up in Vila the capital, and there is much more observance of protocol - low voices, not much talking at all, and the absence of women whilst drinking (except in commercial nakamals on some larger islands like Santo & Malekula) was common across the country. In Tanna and Aniwa in the south, women may not even approach the nakamal whilst it is being used - it is strictly a men-only zone and used to be punished harshly in the old days.
In villages across the country there are usually 2-3 separate nakamals, commercial ones in larger villages where you might pay 20vt/shell as opposed to 50vt in Vila or Luganville. There is usually also a more traditional nakamal where people prepare their own kava - in Tanna for example there may be several small groups of drinkers preparing separately in each corner of the ground.
The most memorable kava nights for me were in Tanna, whilst working in the custom villages in the centre around Yaonanen, Yapilmai and Yakel. After a days work walking through the bush all day assessing water sources we would crouch around a huge banyan tree in the nakamal grounds just before sunset, whilst the younger men and boys pushed chunks of fresh kava root into their already crammed mouths and chewed it up. There is a skill to this, as whenever I tried to chew my own fresh kava I ended up wasted before even drinking a shell. No matter how hard you try not to swallow any concentrate, some gets through. Once chewed up it is put into coconut fibre and water poured through, into a large shell of around 3-400ml. The style in Tanna is to have one huge shell rather than several smaller ones, with many men taking just the one although some take 1-2 plus the "makas". Sitting down on a log under the banyan in the bush clearing, dark falling quickly, you feel the kava come on after a few minutes and the effect is far greater than usually experienced in Vila nakamals and nothing like anything you get from dry powder. Your vision changes to almost tunnel vision snapshots of men walking slowly around bent over in the dusk, or just standing alone in the middle of the clearing looking at the ground, the smell of woodsmoke everywhere. Your ears can start to ring. There is an almost liquid quality to the air and the general sense is of time slowing right down. I often had a second or third, through greed rather than necessity, and often lost my legs when trying to stand when it was time to leave.
One time back in Vila I was visiting friends in a Tanna squatter camp at the plane approach end of the runway of Vila airport. They had set up a traditional Tanna style nakamal there and offered chewed kava and it was a nice change to visit there whilst still close to Vila - a taste of Tanna close to home. The occasional plane coming overhead just 100m above the ground whilst your first shell was kicking in added an extra something. I remember going one night looking for a friend Pierot from Whitesands in Tanna, who I had met on Aniwa the year before when we both got stranded there for 3 weeks after a cyclone. He wasn't there so I had 2 shells of chewed with his brother before leaving - except my legs had completely gone, even though my head felt OK. To get back to the road you had to walk across a log over a river then go another 1km to the main Mele road. They had to carry me through the water to the road and drop me into a passing minibus. In the bus I felt OK again and chatted to the driver, but upon arriving at my flat in town, opened the bus door and fell flat on my face, and had to crawl to my front door.
I was in Vanuatu last year for 3 months and had the pleasure of revisiting this Tanna community on the edge of Port Vila, where they have now set up a commercial nakamal by the main road. It is not chewed, but was of far better quality and freshness than 99% of places in town. Many of the Yakel & Yaonanen people were there and conversations were picked up from 15-20 years before like no time had passed - which is very common in in Vanuatu. Sadly the recent cyclone removed this nakamal and the housing belonging to the community behind it.
A different kava experience was to be had in Penama province - Pentecost, Maewo & Ambae. The traditional nakamals were longhouses with ground ovens in the centre, and sometimes, like in Lihuik above Melsisi on Pentecost, had bamboo bunks for drinkers to sleep in rather than go home. The kava was usually made in a "rammer" - a large mortar and pestle arrangement usually made from a short length of PVC pipe set into concrete. More traditionally it was made by hand-grinding it with a piece of dead coral, like a rasp. This too was good and strong, although several smaller (or normal size) shells are drunk instead of 1-2 huge ones like in Tanna.
Back in Port Vila there was always a vibrant kava scene with around 150 commercial nakamals at that time. There were always 2-3 taken over by expats, and the favourite would change from time to time. A favourite around 1995-97 was "PJ's" which was behind and above Independence Park on Rue Collardeu, with a stunning view over the harbour and sunset. The kava was famous for its strength, but also tasted terrible and could make the most hardened drinker retch, but we kept going back every night like moths to the flame. I think they didn't spend much effort cleaning the skin off.
Other famous expat places were Ronnies at Nambatu (recently destroyed by Pam) and the Red Light at Seaside Tongoa. Much of the time though I would drop in to PJ's then get a bus into Ohlen or Namburu, places where foreigners didn't generally go to drink, and look out good Tanna or Pentecost nakamals. Once you get to know the regular crowd at each place you used to get special rounds of coral ground or chewed kava made to order. I often used to walk back home with one eye shut as double vision could come on quickly with just one extra shell.
I only ever came across tudei (2-day) kava once in Mota Lava in the north. It hit me hard and all the next day I was too kava-sick to move, and the second day was like a normal kava hangover (general slackness, slow minded). There are many varieties of the kava family that are not suitable for drinking and I think tudei is borderline poisonous and never drank by choice. Once in central Epi we came across an abandoned village that had relocated to the coast, and the local with me showed me some kava plants like trees - 6-8m tall - and said that they grew them before for poison not for drinking.
After leaving Vanuatu in 1999 I have been back many times but have also spent 4 years in Samoa and Tonga. Whilst kava is drunk there traditionally, usually by older men in the market house or at traditional meetings, there is nothing like the kava culture found in Vanuatu. Here I used to buy powder and mix it at home. In Polynesia the preference is for dry kava, it is never prepared fresh/green, although you can find a farmer who will bring you a few kilos of the fresh stuff.
Many people have their own favourite way of mixing, but after much experimentation, I find that using hand-hot water to mix whilst having about 100g kava per litre works best. The kava is inside a womens fine ankle stocking and you nead and massage the kava till the "soapy" feel goes and you are left with just a "sawdust" feel. I then filter the kava back through the stocking 3 times, washing bowls and stocking each time in between. Then let the kava cool before drinking. For a strong mix you are looking for a darker colour and bubbles on the surface that do not burst quickly.
Health effects - I have never had any other than the slack feeling the next day. Just recently I have started to get an allergic reaction, a red itchy face the next day. I am hoping that this is because my kava stockpile is now nearly 2 years old, and not something more dubious. I think the key for regular kava drinkers is to drink plenty of water during the day, in anticipation of 5pm rolling round again....
I also laughed when you said there were 2 rules: Low or no talking and no women. Heh, heh, heh. I'll just let that one lie there without furthur comment. 
On the other hand, a big shout out to all the lovely women who post on this forum and I want to say that we are very happy and lucky to have them. 
