Traditional Kava Grinding
Slightly watered ground kava is being hand-squeezed and filtered through a plant sieve.
Kava is a common cultural factor shared by many islanders across the South Pacific Ocean, from the Melanesian islands of Vanuatu in the Far Western Pacific all the way to the Hawaiian Islands. Because of this spreading of kava, it is consumed in many different communities, and therefore, ceremonies and ways of preparing this holy beverage vary greatly from one island to another. But there is still a common factor that remains similar everywhere: The kava need to be ground and then mixed with a bit of water before being filtered and served.
This grinding nowadays is mostly done by electric means, with electric meat grinders used to grind the fresh kava roots daily in the kava bars in Port-Vila, and with “pounding machines” (mostly in Fiji) and big hammer-mill and grinders to reduce dried kava roots and chips into a fine powder for export (and also nowadays for the local consumption in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa…). Where people don’t have access to electricity (which is still the case for a great number of our kava farmers), people use mortar and pestle to crush the kava roots (either fresh like in Vanuatu or dried in Fiji), as it is a quick and efficient way to prepare and process a fair amount of kava juice quickly.
The “old traditional” ways were slightly different.
Coral Ground Kava
People from the northern islands of Vanuatu still prepare their kava daily in the traditional way. Every single day, men will come back from their farms with a fresh kava stump that they have just harvested. The kava will be quickly cleaned, cut into small pieces, and then ground over a timber board placed on the floor simply using a piece of sharp coral. The ground kava will be slightly watered, then hand squeezed and filtered through a plant sieve directly into a half coconut shell bowl. The preparer will then call someone to come and drink it. Kava prepared this way is called “basisi” and is well-known in Vanuatu for being one of the most potent forms of kava preparation.
Why is kava prepared like this seemingly more potent than kava prepared using other methods?
Many factors come into play, such as the selection of kava, as they will get for themselves the best cultivars and mature plants, the freshness of the green kava, the fine grind, and the very small amount of water used for dilution. All these elements contribute to this kava being some of the greatest kava a kava lover could enjoy!
Ivory Ground Kava
We are now going to talk about the “ivory grind ”- as it was nicknamed by the first westerners witnessing it: The chewing of the kava.
Chewing the kava roots was the most common way of grinding kava before, and there are many descriptions in the literature of those early preparations and ceremonies held in Fiji and Tonga mostly, whether by James Cook (1777), William Mariner (1817), or Anatole von Hugel (1875). They are quite interesting readings considering the fact that the practice of grinding kava by chewing its roots and spitting them in a common receptacle where the mashed roots were then diluted with water has now totally disappeared from the Tongan islands and from the Fiji Islands, most probably due to the influence of missionaries, and has now been replaced by seemly more “hygienic” processing methods.
Chewed kava roots in heaps on leaves placed on the ground.
Kava was chewed by young teenagers or young adults, not married, healthy, and were either boys or girls, depending on locations. The practice is now still very alive on the island of Tanna, in the southern part of the Vanuatu archipelago, where every day, on the traditional communal meeting places called nakamal in bislama, the local language, in the afternoon, young boys chew the kava for the elders.
The chewed roots are spat in heaps on some leaves placed on the ground. Two mouthfuls of chewed kava generally make a heap enough for two shells of kava. When a sufficient number of heaps have been prepared, following the number of people attending the kava session, a bit of water is poured on the heap that is placed in a sort of bag acting like a fine sieve, where the mashed kava will be stirred with a wooden stick, forcing the kava juice to run into a half coconut shell placed underneath.
As always in similar kava ceremonies, the protocol is important, and the higher chiefs are called first, then invited guests, and then the rest of the crowd. The shells are generally big, often over 12 oz, and are drank as a shot in one sip, standing, facing the east. The drinkers often spit the last sip in a spray, shouting, an action called tamafa, a sort of a prayer that would seal some discussion, re-establish peace between people, call for rain for the gardens, etc. The drinkers then go sit quietly in a corner of the nakamal, always shadowed by the canopy of huge banyan trees, by a small fire, where food has been braised as chasers. As kava prepared like this is very strong, drinkers often have only 2 cups before heading home.
As all the kava was prepared like this in the past, the first reports by Western explorers attributed the potency of kava to the action of the saliva and the enzymes triggering some sort of chemical reactions; we now know it is not entirely the case but chewing kava is still considered in places like Vanuatu as one of the ways to get a very potent kava juice. The saliva might have a role, but the main factors would probably be more the grind and the way the cells are ground allowing the release of the kavalactones and also the little amount of water used for dilution.
Drinking chewed kava is definitely an experience that all intrepid travelers to this region of the world need to try, enjoying the quietness of the night, the very potent kava, the whispered conversations…it’s a real pure moment of relaxation.