Kava: That Most Magical Drink

My friend Jay's nakamal (kava bar)

Standing in the shadowy outskirts of the nakamal, facing the sea, I sniff quickly and hold my breath. Slowly bringing the cup held in my right hand to my lips, I tilt it backwards and drink, taking long gulping draughts. I feel my throat tighten and relax, as it does every time I take a shell of kava. On its tightening, I wonder if this will be the shell that makes me traut (throw up), but when it relaxes, I know the danger has passed. When the cup is empty, I drop my hand and shake it, just slightly, to dislodge any last dregs that remain. The aftertaste is strong, earthy, and a little spicy; it feels as though I just drank some peppery, muddy water. With practiced ease, I spit on the ground, expelling as much excess saliva as I can to get rid of the taste. My lips and tongue tingle a little bit as I go replace my shell on the counter, to be rinsed and reused by the next customer.

Now that the scene is set, it's time to begin in earnest.
I guess the first question most of you have is: what is kava?

I can't say it much better than Wikipedia. So you should really just read it there.
If you must have something here though, I will go with the definition Google gave me when I googled the query: "a narcotic sedative drink made in Polynesia from the crushed roots of a plant of the pepper family"

Let's suffice it to say that kava is a very important part of culture here, with many people drinking it many few times a week, or even every day, and every important ceremony or celebration is sure to have lots of it! While it is traditionally a man's drink, and in some places women are not allowed to drink kava, I lucked out and got placed on an island where it's perfectly acceptable for women to drink, and at nakamal's too! Kava is a highly social drink, and is often drunk at nakamal's (kava bars), with friends. I spend many a weeknight sitting and storying (chatting) with my friends while enjoying the effects of this strange and wonderful (but awful tasting!) drink.

Now, you may say, you've only been there 8 months! What can you possibly know about kava? Worry not, friends, I have spent long hours in careful study prior to writing this post. 

How to make kava

I guess before I start, I should say that there are many different ways of making kava. The way you'll see here is the one most often seen in "The Big City" (AKA my town of about 1,000), and other places where nakamals sell kava for money. There are more traditional ways, but this is the most common one that I see.

Step 1: Clean the kava root. This generally involves cutting off some of the bark, and washing it

Step 2: Cut the kava root. (I came too late to see these first two steps, but I trust in your ability to imagine these two steps!)

What kava looks like after step 2. Wouldn't you be excited to drink the juice of these roots?

Step 3: Wash the cut pieces of kava root

This is Kwani, one of the guys I often drink kava with. He's a brother/uncle/cousin/friend or something of the sort, which means I call him brother. He (and Jay, who'll you see later) were kind enough to let me watch and take photos of the process, while peppering them with questions. (Get it? Cuz kava tastes peppery? Man, I'm funny.)

Step 4: Grind the kava root. This is the point where the distinctive peppery smell of kava starts to really be prevalent.

I've only ever seen one person use a meat grinder to actually grind meat. I would say 99% of them are re-purposed for use in grinding kava.

Workin' hard, grindin' kava

Step 5: Grind the kava again. This is a step that I don't see too often, but makes the kava smoother and stronger. Maybe this is why Kwani's kava is my favorite in town!

As promised, on the left is Jay, one of my other drinking buddies. The kava they were making was destined for his nakamal.

Plop...plop...plop

After the second time through the grinder

Always important to wash your meat-turned-kava grinder! You also want to make sure not to lose any kava from it being stuck in the grinder.

Cleaning, and making sure to get all the dregs out

Mmmm. Good enough to drink!

Step 6: Stir!

Step 6.5: Check the kava to see if there's enough water. Not enough water: kava is too strong. Too much water: kava is too weak. If after stirring the kava you grab at the bottom of your bucket and come up with a handful like this:

It means your kava is still too strong. Add more water, and stir again! Once you get to this point:

It's time to move on to the next step!

Step 7: Sift the kava through a flower sack. The kava at this point is pretty chunky, and would not be fun to drink.

Pour some into the sack, which has been placed in another clean bucket

Let it sift through, then squeeze out the dregs.

No, really. SQUEEZE!

 

Empty the dregs in the nearby field

Like so

So close! You can still see a few floating particles, however, so...

Step 8: Sift again, this time through finer cloth. These boys use a ladies slip:

Sift it through the skirt...

Do the fun shake the skirt thing and make the kava dance

Squeeze...

Step 9: Sift it one last time through an even finer cloth (AKA the same skirt, but folded up more)

Look how easily it pours through now! So smooth.

Step 10: Drink! Put your lovely brown concoction of root juice behind the counter of your nakamal, and wait for customers.

Cheers!

The Effects of Kava

Now that you know how to make it, you may be asking yourself: "But what happens? What does it feel like?" It's a hard question to answer, and it really does depend (on the person, on the kava, on what you ate that day...). After many hours of note-taking and careful scientific method-like study, here's the best I came up with:

Stage one: Tingly lips and tongue that goes away after a few minutes. No real change in composure yet.

Stage two: I start to feel the effects of the kava working on me. I get very talkative, and retain my sense of balance. This is the stage where I feel like I'm my most extroverted self, similar to a nice tipsy drunkenness.

Stage three: I’m still talkative, but my ability to form Bislama sentences has slipped. My tongue feels heavy in my mouth. Standing up after sitting down for a while always makes me lose my balance a little.
Alternate stage three: This only happened once, and was very weird. I spent a weekend up at Alison's with my fellow Ambae PCVs, and we drank a fair amount of kava. I didn't feel the usual mental effects, but when I tried to get up and walk, I found that I could not for the life of me walk without falling over! Very disconcerting.

Stage four: Quiet contemplation. It’s not that I don’t want to talk, it’s that the connection between my brain and my mouth seems to have been disrupted. Either that, or I’m afraid I’d butcher the Bislama, so I just sit and enjoy the effects. I enjoy listening to other people’s conversations, the wind in the trees, and feeling the cool night breeze. (This is generally the point at which I stop drinking. I've only passed it twice, and both times weren't super pleasant)

Stage five: Similar to stage four, but I’ve lost my appetite. When in stage five, if forced to eat dinner, I will eat very little, and it’s got to be bland (e.g. a few bites of rice).

Stage six: See stage five, add in nausea. It very quickly follows stage five.

Stage seven: Throw up? Haven’t made it here yet, but based on how at stage six I feel as though if I drink any more, I would throw up and that kava has been known to make people do so, I feel like it’s a safe guess.

Thoughts on kava (while on kava)

One night I was quite drunk (high?) on kava, and feeling good. So I decided to write about it! The below snippets are from various different nights, and reflect 

"I feel like the front of my brain is more affected than the back. My eyes feel tired, and when I imagine myself thinking with the front of my brain, I feel a weird pressure and my thoughts are sluggish. When I imagine myself thinking from the back of my brain, however, my thoughts seem to flow more easily. Weird."

"I’m lying here in bed, after drinking a decent amount of kava, followed by white wine. This is called kale. I feel like I’m very aware of my legs, but simultaneously like I don’t want them to move at all. There’s a weird tingly feeling in them. They feel very relaxed, but also like they’re tired even if they’re not moving."

From a note I left myself on my phone during my weekend up north, while more high on kava than I’ve ever been: "I feel like I’m drunk, but instead of wanting to dance, I just want to sit and quietly talk to no one"

"Sitting heating up some leftover food from lunch, I feel inexplicably light in my chair! Oh kava, why are you such a mystery?"

"Sometimes, brushing your teeth after drinking kava is hard"

"The most unfortunate part about kava is when you have good food for dinner, but don’t have the appetite for it"

"One of the biggest differences between kava and alcohol is that when you drink a lot of alcohol, you think you can still pretend to be normal. But when you drink a lot of kava, you know for sure that everyone can tell."

"After you drink a certain amount, don’t drop things. It’s too jarring."

Closing Thoughts

Kava has been a big part of my service so far. Since Kava is such a social experience, starting to drink it, to sit and story (hang out) at nakamals, was where community integration really began. I drink a lot, but for me, it's all about the social aspect of it. It's nice to end a long day in the office with some time spent hanging out chatting with friends at the nakamal. And the effects of the actual drink itself are just an added bonus.