The tropical paradise of Fiji is an archipelago of 332 islands flung like rice at a wedding across 230,000 square kilometres of the southwest Pacific. This is often attributed to their fondness for Kava Kava, a drink made by pounding or chewing the roots of the Kava Kava vine and then soaking the mash in cold water.
Heat destroys the active ingredients.
Several years ago I was sitting cross-legged in a jungle clearing in Fiji, in a circle of laughing young Fijians. They were passing around a coconut shell filled with a brownish green liquid that looked like muddy water. This was before I had studied herbalism. But I had heard about Kava and its purported relaxing properties and had always assumed that it was alcoholic. I took a sip and tasted a slightly bitter, but generally insipid liquid.