Fiji Kava

In Fiji there is a tradition of drinking kava socially rather then for Fijian ceremonies. I have been regularly drinking it for the last few weeks I am going to blog about some of the new effects that I have found.

Definition of kava from wiki is

Kava (Piper methysticum) is an ancient crop of the western Pacific. Other names for kava include `awa (Hawaii), 'ava (Samoa), yaqona (Fiji), and sakau (Pohnpei). Kava is
related to the black pepper; both have heart-shaped leaves and flowers similar to the flower spike of the anthurium. Kava also has a peppery taste. Kava has long been a part of religious, political, and cultural life throughout the Pacific

Usually when we drink kava it is long session to the early hours of the morning or until at a stage when I feel quite sick. After drinking copious amount of kava you get "grog dopped" which means that you lose some of your reflexes and spatial awareness. You are also get very tired.

But lately I only drink one tanoa a night and finish around 1am in the morning, the interesting effect is that when I wake up at around 6am and I am not tired which is not a normal occurance for me.

Kava Kava pills are sold as an aid for anxiety and to help a person sleeping but I have never read that it actually helps reduce the amount of time that you need to sleep.

The best way to work out how much time you need to sleep, is to sleep when you are tired and see what time you wake up. For me its usually around 7-8 hours. But when I drink a tanoa of grog it can cut hours from that time. The may be actually an side effect though of not getting enough sleep that I dont know of.

At home my niece mixes my kava for me by mixing powdered kava in cloth and draining water through the cloth so the kava stays in the cloth but I end up drinking the strained kava




Majority of Fijian Ceremonies use the Kava root which then pounded and then strainied in cloth