Auckland city set to get its first kava bar at Victoria Park Markets

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Kava is a non-alcoholic, sedating drink consumed widely in the Pacific Islands and Pacific communities in New Zealand.

Auckland city looks set to get its first kava bar, a downtown establishment dedicated to the sedating Pacific drink.

The group of kava enthusiasts behind the project is calling it Four Shells, a 'place in central Auckland to drink kava, relax and socialise over a calming beverage'.

Concept drawings of Four Shells, a dedicated kava bar planned for central Auckland.

The project's Kickstarter campaign page said it had secured a space at Victoria Park Markets for the bar and had raised more than $1000 of a $5000 goal for renovation costs.

The main organisers are Todd Henry and his Tongan wife, Anau Mesui Henry, whose family has been in the kava business for generations.

The space secured for a kava bar at Victoria Park Markets in Auckland.

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Todd Henry said they got the idea as they noticed increasing interest in kava drinking over the past decade.

There were a couple of kava bars in south Auckland run by Fijians, but Four Shells would be a first for the central city, Henry said.

'There are countless informal ones that are run out of people's garages in south Auckland, and that's the context that I was first introduced to kava in the Tongan community.'

He said there were more than 100 kava bars in the United States and they appeared to be quite successful.

'If we don't do this, somebody else will. And we want to do it properly.'

Kava is legal in New Zealand and regulated as a food. The non-alcoholic drink is made from straining ground root particles from the kava plant into water.

It is consumed widely as a cultural sacrament in the Pacific Islands and in New Zealand's Pacific communities.

Users say the drink's mild effects promote relaxation and conversation, especially when consumed from a communal bowl in a circle of people.

Earlier this year, kava and the carcinogenic betelnut were banned from an Auckland construction site.

The Ministry of Health said it had 'no current concern' over kava consumption in New Zealand.