Fiji Day: How Kava Became Fiji's National Drink

The Fijian Kava drink, called yaqona (say "yang-GO-na"), is made by kneading the pounded root of the Kava plant in cold water and sharing it from a single wooden bowl. It became Fiji's national drink because it has opened every important occasion in the islands for centuries, from a village welcome to the swearing-in of a president. Fiji Day falls on 10 October each year, so this is a good week to tell the story of how one root ended up at the centre of a nation, and how you can pour a bowl the Fijian way wherever you are.

What Fiji Day celebrates

Two things happened on 10 October, 96 years apart. In 1874, Fijian chiefs signed the Deed of Cession, which made Fiji a British colony. In 1970, on the same date, Fiji became independent again. Fiji Day marks both, and it is the country's national day: flags on every shopfront, church services, rugby, shared food, and somewhere close by, a full bowl of Kava.

That last part is not a detail. In Fiji, yaqona is how an occasion is made official. A speech can be skipped. The bowl cannot.

What is the Fijian Kava drink?

Yaqona is the Fijian word for both the Kava plant (Piper methysticum) and the drink made from it. Informally, almost everyone calls it grog. It is not brewed, fermented or heated. Dried root is pounded to a powder, wrapped in a cloth, and kneaded in cold water until the water turns the colour of milky tea. That is the whole recipe, and it has barely changed.

A few words you will hear around any bowl:

Fijian word	What it means
Yaqona	Kava, the plant and the drink
Tanoa	The wide, legged wooden bowl the Kava is mixed in, traditionally carved from vesi hardwood
Bilo	The polished half coconut shell used as a cup
Sevusevu	The formal gift of Kava root a visitor presents to a host or chief
Cobo	A deep, cupped-hand clap, given before and after drinking
Waka and lawena	The lateral roots, and the peeled basal stump, of the plant
Bula	"Life", the greeting said as you accept the bilo

How Kava became Fiji's national drink

Fiji has never needed a law to name a national drink. Kava earned the title over a very long time. Here is the short version.

When	What happened
About 3,000 years ago (estimate)	Botanists trace the domestication of Kava to northern Vanuatu. The plant produces no seed, so every Kava plant in the Pacific was carried from island to island as a cutting, in a canoe.
Before written records	Kava reaches Fiji and becomes a drink of chiefs and priests, prepared with strict ceremony.
1800s	Missionaries and traders describe yaqona ceremonies in detail. Pounding the root gradually replaces the older practice of chewing it before mixing.
10 October 1874	The Deed of Cession is signed. Through the colonial period, yaqona drinking spreads from chiefly houses to ordinary village life.
10 October 1970	Independence. The yaqona ceremony is part of how the new nation presents itself, and it has welcomed monarchs, a pope and heads of state since.
2017	Fiji publishes its Kava Quality Manual and a national Kava standard, describing 13 Fijian varieties and how beverage-grade Kava should be grown and handled.
2020	The Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts a regional standard for Kava as a beverage mixed with water, with Fiji among the Pacific nations behind it.

The thread running through all of it is that Kava in Fiji is a shared drink. One bowl, one cup, passed in turn. You do not order your own. That simple rule is a large part of why it became a symbol of the country: you cannot drink it the Fijian way without sitting down with other people.

How Kava is served in Fiji

A full state ceremony has many steps and its own language, and we will cover the sevusevu in its own guide. An ordinary evening round is much simpler, and it looks like this:

1. The root is presented. A visitor arriving in a village brings a bundle of waka as a sevusevu. Accepting it is how the hosts welcome you in.
2. The Kava is mixed. The pounded root goes into a cloth and is kneaded in the tanoa with cold water. Everyone sits on a woven mat, facing the bowl.
3. The first bilo goes to the most senior person. Order matters. Guests of honour and elders drink first.
4. You clap, say "bula", and drink it in one go. One cobo before you take the shell. Sipping is not the custom.
5. You hand back the bilo and clap three times. The room often answers "maca" (said "ma-tha"), meaning the cup is drained.
6. The bowl goes around again. You can ask for "low tide" (a half cup) or "high tide" (a full one). The talking, and usually a guitar, carry on until the tanoa is empty.

It is a calm, unhurried way to spend an evening, and nobody is in charge of the conversation. If you are curious how that compares with a night at the pub, our guide to Kava vs alcohol as a social drink lays the two side by side.

A view from Qamea Island

Our own Kava grows on our family farm on Qamea Island, a small, steep, green island off Taveuni in Fiji's north. This is one of the country's best-known Kava regions, and here the plant is part of the calendar of a family's life. Kava is not an annual crop. We leave our roots in the ground for four years or more before harvest, which means every plant we lift today was put in the soil with a future occasion in mind.

That patience is the part of the story we most want people to understand on Fiji Day. The bowl looks simple. Behind it are years of weeding, waiting and trusting the weather. When the root finally comes out, it is washed, dried and tested by an independent lab every harvest, and we publish every report in full on our lab results page. Across five independent tests from 2021 to 2026, our Kava has averaged about 14% total Kavalactones, with a Noble profile. If "Noble" is a new word to you, this guide explains Noble vs tudei Kava.

How to share a bowl this Fiji Day

You do not need a carved tanoa to join in. A large mixing bowl, a strainer bag and a few friends will do.

• Start with real Fijian root. Our traditional Noble Fijian Kava powder is the same root we have described above, ground for kneading and straining.
• Use cold or room-temperature water and knead for a few minutes. Our step-by-step preparation guide shows the method and the quantities.
• Sit down together. On the floor if you can. One bowl in the middle.
• Serve the eldest or the guest first, clap once, say "bula", and drink.
• Take your time. The point of the bowl is the people around it.

If you run a Kava bar and want to pour single-origin Fijian Kava all year, not just on 10 October, our wholesale Noble Fijian Kava root powder starts at $99.99/kg landed (USD), with price breaks for larger monthly volumes. Details are on the wholesale page.

FAQ

Is Kava officially Fiji's national drink?

Kava is universally regarded as Fiji's national drink and is used in state ceremonies, but that standing comes from custom and long use, not from a single law declaring it. Fiji does have official national standards for how Kava is grown and graded.

What is Kava called in Fiji?

The proper Fijian name is yaqona, pronounced "yang-GO-na" because the Fijian letter q sounds like the "ng-g" in "finger". In everyday conversation most Fijians simply say grog.

What is the difference between yaqona and Kava?

None. Kava is the name used across much of Polynesia and in English. Yaqona is the Fijian name for the same plant, Piper methysticum, and the same drink.

When is Fiji Day?

Fiji Day is 10 October every year. It marks Fiji's independence in 1970 and the signing of the Deed of Cession on the same date in 1874.

Sources: Lebot, Merlin and Lindstrom, Kava: The Pacific Elixir (Yale University Press, 1992); Fiji Kava Quality Manual (Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Program with the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture, 2017); Codex Alimentarius, Regional Standard for Kava Products for Use as a Beverage When Mixed with Water (CXS 336R-2020); FAO/WHO, Kava: A review of the safety of traditional and recreational beverage consumption (2016). Dates for the early history of Kava are scholarly estimates. This article is general information, not medical advice.