About Kava

Image Piper methysticum by Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0,

3,000 Years of Tradition.
A brief history of Kava in Vanuatu and the world.

Kava is a ceremonial drink made from the root of the kava plant (Piper methysticum), a small shrub with heart shaped leaves that is a distant relative of the pepper tree family. The original settlers of Vanuatu, known as the Lapita people, are thought to have domesticated the kava plant about 3,000 years ago for medicinal and cultural purposes.

Their descendants – the Polynesians – then carried kava stem cuttings eastward into Fiji and eventually onto the rest of Polynesia (Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Hawaii, etc).

Vanuatu is the ancestral home of kava, which explains why Vanuatu kava is the most potent in the world and why more varieties exist in Vanuatu than anywhere else in the Pacific.

In ancient times, kava ceremonies in Vanuatu were surrounded by complicated rituals and restricted to secret societies where only powerful men could drink kava and practice sorcery. 

However, kava has since evolved to become part of everyday society in Vanuatu – it is offered as a welcome drink to visitors and exchanged as a gift at important gatherings like births, circumcisions, marriages, high ranking chief meetings and deaths.

While adult men will often gather at the end of the day to enjoy and share a coconut shell or two of kava simply to chill out or even to resolve neighbourly disputes, women are now joining men in the consumption of kava as a daily ritual or habit.

Nakamals in Vanuatu and Kava Bars are gaining popularity world wide with men and women from a variety of demographics enjoying the calming and often euphoric effects of this all natural beverage.

Read more about Kava and its benefits here https://nootropicsexpert.com/kava/