Pacific Travel
Drinking Kava
The atmosphere's sombre and quieter
Ask a mini-bus driver around Port Vila, Vanuatu, where you can drink kava and the chances are he'll direct you to Ronnie's Nakamal, a brisk walk up from The Melanesian Hotel. A nakamal is a specific shelter or house where kava is sold per shell or bowl and consumed with characteristic gestures distinct to kava drinking in Vanuatu.
While Ronnie's may be a modern kava bar, there are countless nakamals around Vanuatu ranging from traditional to concrete or corrugated iron blocks. Drinking Vanuatu kava involves more than a gulp of that potent, raw-tasting, mud-coloured brew. Before you head for a nakamal experience you might want to take with you a fizzy drink to rinse out the bitter taste and a few savouries in the off-chance they may not be sold at your designated nakamal.
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Brave it if you wish, but I was relieved following my first 100 Vatu shell with the thought that I had stopped by a store for a bottle of lemonade. Unlike Fiji, nakamals are a cottage industry in Vanuatu. Kava drinking in Fiji involves sitting around a tanoa or a kava receptacle, kava is drunk from usually a coconut shell and the atmosphere is loud.
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At a nakamal, the atmosphere is sombre and quieter. In real nakamals you only talk in whispers. Usual shell prices are 50 Vatu to 150 Vatu. The amount you drink depends on how much you pay. Standard practice is you take your shell outside and drink alone. There's a technique to keeping your drink down and not cause any internal turmoil - keep still! My seasoned kava companion, Tom, omitted to inform me of the finer details of kava drinking Vanuatu style.
I had to learn the hard way having shifted from one location of the nakamal vicinity to another oblivious to the unmistakable never-done-this-before label stamped across my forehead. I¹ll refrain from detailing the repercussions. Tom obviously knew the drill and, in retrospect, so did other customers at Ronnie's Nakamal that Wednesday evening. And that evening Ronnie¹s customers were Anglophone, Francophone, Asian and ni-Vanuatu. Fiji kava pales in comparison to the potency of the Vanuatu brew. The kava concentration differs from each nakamal. Depending on the potency, the first shell just might inebriate you. Be prepared with a designated driver. Shell number two did it for me. I should¹ve sat still!
While some nakamals use grinding machines to produce the kava brew, some use coral to grind the kava root. On offshore islands kava drinking may be accompanied with more elaborate gestures.
Ronnie and Ruby Watson run Ronnie's. By day Ronnie works for SITA (Society International Telecommunications Aeronautic) - SITA provides telecommunications networks for airlines worldwide. Ruby is a former journalist having worked as an editor with Radio Tuvalu and PACNEWS - Pacific Islands Broadcasting Association's news service - when it was based in Port Vila.
Says Ronnie: "In nakamals people sit quietly and as the kava takes its effect you become quieter because it relaxes you. The mixture of the kava stem and root produces a strong drink. We maintain a regular quality of kava at Ronnie's. Although I'm working, my other task is doing the PR for this business by having a drink with customers every afternoon. Majority return because they like the ambience and the mix is consistent."
Feedback from Ronnie and Ruby¹s customers keeps the couple alert to mix requirements.
Ronnie's sells "wash mouth" goodies such as finger-sized chicken drumsticks, oranges, grapefruit and sodas, in case you walk in hands and legs. Ronnie¹s has been operating for six years now, and opens from 5:30pm to 10ish.
