A Nuku’alofa business has started to sell “sparkling kava” on tap for those interested in tasting the traditional brew.

Tricia Emberson and her family owned Pacific Brewing Tonga business launched the initiative at their Reload Bar in Nuku’alofa last week.

The project has been a two-year ongoing project that is blending tradition with innovation and plan to add flavoured kava drinks in the future.

• READ MORE: Other kava reports

Emberson said her team has kept the essence of kava while introducing a fresh, modern twist.

She believes turning kava into a drink available for everyone at a local bar is the way to go to meet demands.

She told RNZ Pacific that the lockdowns during the 2020 covid-19 pandemic and the 15 January 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami forced her and her team to look at options to keep their business operations afloat.

They had taken over Pacific Brewing in 2017 with the idea of creating beer in Tonga to tell the story of their Polynesian heritage.

Rebranded Pacific beer
They rebranded their beer using the names of Polynesian mythical gods, which she said “was sort of the trend and of the time”.

The “Sparkling Kava’ product is the result of two years of research and work, with the focus on making the drink available so they can also get the market’s feedback.

“During the covid pandemic it was a very tough time for everybody and we started looking at what other opportunities we could look into,” she said.

“Kava was one of the things that has gone through stages throughout the years where it’s been permitted in overseas countries, where it hasn’t been permitted in some countries.

“And because my background is in exports and knowing to make the business viable, I started looking at what we could do to export up from Tonga.”

Emberson owning Reload Bar provided a good opportunity for them to have the “sparkling kava” on tap for people to taste.

“It’s taken us a while because first of all we were researching the properties of kava and what can we do with kava,” she said.

“And now, through Reload Bar, we’re going to do the market research and we’re doing that because we want the opinions not only of the Tongans but also of foreigners to see if this is something they would drink.”

Longer-term plans
She said that is the first step as they had more plans long-term.

“Of course we have a longer-term plan, where we would look at the viability of exporting,” she said.

“We are looking at flavoring, different flavorings, and also putting it into a bottle or a can.”

Emberson was born in Fiji and returned to Tonga in 1990 to invest in the fisheries sector, setting up Alatini Fisheries.

She said the poplularity of kava now around the globe was a factor they considered.

“The fact that although many tourists had in the past wanted to taste kava but was not able to do so because it was not readily available was another factor in them going the way they have.

“So that was the other reason why we looked at kava because I’ve been doing a lot of traveling through Indonesia I noticed that it was very easy for you to drink coconut or drink this or drink that . . . all the locally available drinks,” she said.

“And I know in Tonga, when you visit, as a tourist you say I’d like to taste kava and it’s not available, so that was one of the things we wanted to meet, the need that is there.”

She added customer feedback and the result of their research on the product now available would form the basis of their next step.

“It’s been good so far,” she revealed when asked how people are responding.

Not enough support
Meanwhile, Emberson said small island countries in the Pacific, like Tonga, needed more support for the private sector.

She revealed this was something she had witnessed over the years since her family started their business operations in 1990.

They have had to shut down their fisheries business because of the high costs of operations and are working hard on keeping their Pacific Brewing and Reload Bar operations going by looking at product options like the sparkling kava and flavoured kava.

“There hasn’t been, as far as I’ve seen, the support of the private sector,” she said.

“I think Fiji is a little bit bit better. But in some of the smaller Pacific islands that support for the private sector is not there.

“That’s been my game since 1990 as an entrepreneur, private enterprise, looking and seeing what I can do to help the country, and it is just difficult.

“I’ve been in Australia and it’s amazing to see the difference in the support of small businesses.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has gone on a marketing blitz to reel Australians to Aotearoa New Zealand’s shores.

It comes as tourism operators race to ramp up in time — with less than four weeks to go before those crossing the Tasman can touch down.

Already some Queenstown businesses expected demand could be high, but they were questioning how they would find enough staff in time.

• READ MORE: PM on border reopening plan: ‘We’re ready to welcome the world back’
• LISTEN TO RNZ: PM Jacinda Ardern in Queenstown to lure Australians back to NZ
• Covid-19 update: 14,128 community cases, 943 people in hospital, five more deaths
• Other NZ covid-19 outbreak reports

Beaming in from shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Australian breakfast show Sunrise, Aotearoa couldn’t wait to have them back.

“I cannot remember a time when we’ve been so excited about the prospect of seeing as many Australians as possible come and visit us, so you can expect to get the warmest welcome you can imagine,” she told Sunrise on Friday morning.

She has been speaking with tourist operators around Queenstown on Friday, and acknowledged that they needed more support to find enough staff in time.

‘Ready to welcome the world’
Ardern has announced New Zealand’s borders will be open to vaccinated Australians from 11.59 pm on April 12, RNZ News reports.

She says fully vaccinated travellers from visa-waiver countries will be able to enter the country from 11.59pm on May 1.

The border has already reopened to New Zealanders from around the world and on Monday critical and skilled workers also became eligible to enter without isolation, Ardern said.

“We have now received guidance that it is safe to significantly bring forward the next stage of border reopening work, bringing back our tourists,” she said.

“In short, we’re ready to welcome the world back.”

On her Sunrise programme, she said: “We traditionally haven’t had to market particularly. But in this environment right now, I have been talking with Tourism New Zealand and I’d like to bring Immigration New Zealand in to work together around promoting New Zealand as a working holiday option to try and bring in that extra workforce we need.”

“You can expect to get the warmest reaction you can imagine”

New Zealand Prime Minister @JacindaArdern says Kiwis are “so excited” to welcome tourists back from next month after two years mostly shut off from the world. pic.twitter.com/EvBuyAWfC0

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) March 17, 2022

NZ Ski chief executive Paul Anderson was thrilled to see images of Coronet Peak and other iconic vistas beamed back to Australia as part of the Prime Minister’s trip today.

Finding staff a hot topic
But he told her the hot topic was how to find enough staff.

Recruitment was underway for the three mountains, which usually have about 1250 workers.

He said they were on the look out for more snow sport staff.

“There will be 400 to 500 of them we will need in Queenstown. That’s probably 100 to 200 more than we had in previous years.”

And he has not ruled out getting extras in just in case covid-19 took a toll on their workforce.

“If covid is still going through the community, we need to be really aware of that and be able to manage absenteeism that are lot of businesses are suffering from at the moment.”

Rees Hotel chief executive Mark Rose said the border announcement was the best news he has had during the pandemic.

Steady bookings flow
“Two minutes after she started speaking and that date came out, we started getting bookings and there’s been a steady flow of them ever since.”

Friends, family and travel agents in Australia got in contact after seeing the Prime Minister’s appearance on Sunrise.

“I’ve no doubt that we are going to be inundated with Australians over the coming months. I mean they’ve made up about 40 percent of my business over the years.

“I have no doubt at all that we’ll be back to where it was and probably even stronger for this first six months.”

The hotel has gone from 120 staff to 50 over the past two years — but Rose said that needed to double within a few months.

“We’ll need a hundred staff working at the hotel by about the June 20, probably a little earlier to give them the training and things to get the standards up.

“If we’re not at that level, we will slow down the sales of our rooms so we won’t close rooms down but we just won’t have them up for sale.

“It’s much more important that we offer great service than it is for us to just be piling people in and putting money in the bank.”

A long two years for operators — but it seemed there was finally light at the end of the tunnel.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Niuean taro has made a return to the shelves and the stomachs of many in New Zealand — but the humble vegetable has come at a cost.

The Niuean taro is being sold at the Mangere Food Market for $12.99 a kg – more than twice the price of the Fijian and Samoan equivalent.

Managing director for the Mangere Food Market, Vutha Hang says transport costs are to blame.

“Reason why it’s more expensive is because they send it via plane, if they send it via boat then it’ll be cheaper,” he says.

Hang was approached by Shopexports and Freight Ltd to sell the product. Others had declined the offer, he said.

“For me I’ll try, if the people buy it then I’ll carry on and sell it, but if people don’t buy it then I have to stop.”

Shopexports and Freight Ltd, which imports the taro for Mangere Food Market, claims on its Facebook page that the produce supports growers in Niue.

Niuean expats claim their country’s product is of a superior quality than other Pacific varieties.

Fotu Jackson, a Pacific engagement manager at AUT University, says from her extensive knowledge of the Pacific she believes Niuean taro is one of the best.

“I think Niuean taro has a lot more taste, the texture is different than other taro from the Pacific – and I say that as a Samoan,” she says.

Jackson says the soil in Niue is very rich, and she believes this contributes to the uniqueness of the Niuean variety.

Hang says a lot of customers come into his store and look for the taro but only a few actually buy it.

Jackson says despite the price of the Niuean taro, it is worth it.

“I was actually one of the people who drove to buy the taro.”

Jackson says there are not many places you can buy Niuean taro, whereas the Fijian and Samoan variety is readily available throughout the country.

“When it comes to New Zealand it’s really popular, it’s in high demand.”

Repeated efforts to get comment from Shopexports and Freight Ltd were not been successful.

Brandon Ulfsby is a student journalist with Auckland University of Technology’s traning newspaper Te Waha Nui.

In response to last weekend’s reports of complaints about allegedly “tainted” kava, Vanuatu-based exporter Peter Colmar has provided clear scientific evidence that the product he provided to American suppliers is “noble” and shows no trace of tainting.

When the Vanuatu Daily Post shared these results with Agriculture Minister Matai Seremaiah, he replied: “The results submitted to me today will be shared to our officials for assessment.”

In a follow-up telephone call, he applauded Colmar’s efforts to defend the good name of his company.

At the heart of last weekend’s article was a complaint from an American source about the quality of kava allegedly supplied by Sarami, Colmar’s Santo-based kava export operation.

The complaint originated from a letter written by Garry Stoner, founder of Pure Kava, a kava advocacy group.

Stoner wrote to Starwest Botanicals, an herb wholesaler/retailer based in Sacramento, California, founded in 1975. Stoner’s letter included a chemical analysis, which he claimed was derived from a 2015 test of the company’s retail kava powder product.

Part of the analysis consisted, he said, of what is known as an HPLC chromatogram. The letter claims to show signs of Chlorophyll A, which is only found in leaves.

Stoner wrote that so-called “aerial” matter was present in the sample—leaves, twigs and skin, for example—that contain “pipermethystine, an alkaloid with a known history of toxicity”.

Warehouse visit
Another component of the story alleged that Colmar was responsible for “drowning” the US market with what is colloquially known as “two-day” kava. The basis of this complaint was a visit paid to Colmar’s warehouse by kava proponent Mathias Schmidt.

Dr Schmidt holds post-doctoral qualifications in plant biology and is a leading advocate for the safe and responsible marketing of kava in the European Union.

In the article, Dr Schmidt alleged that approximately 60 tons of kava tainted with “two day” varieties had been shipped to the United States recently. He listed four companies, Kumars Import, Naturex Inc, Concentrated Alie Corps, and Starwest Botanicals, as recipients.

The Daily Post requested further documentation concerning these other companies, but received only bill of lading records for the Kumars, Naturex and Concentrated Alie shipments. The accusation, it transpired, was based on a single sample from Starwest.

Following the publication of the article, Colmar angrily and vehemently rejected these accusations as “lies”. He asserted that Dr Schmidt’s allegations of “two day” kava dated back to a visit to his Santo warehouse “5-7 years ago”.

At the time, Colmar said, he provided Dr Schmidt with two samples, at least one of which was known to contain impurities. Colmar stated that he provided the knowingly tainted material in order to dissuade local farmers from attempting to bulk out their product with substandard material.

Presented with Stoner’s chemical analysis, Colmar responded with two separate analyses. One was supplied by Root of Happiness, a California-based kava supplier. The other was supplied by Starwest, the company that received the original complaint from Stoner.

Calm, euphoric feeling
Both the Root of Happiness and Starwest analyses show clear indications of kavalactones, the chemical component of kava that provides the calm, euphoric feeling that makes kava so popular.

Neither of the samples showed any sign of Chlorophyll A, nor did they show any signs of Flavokavain, a chemical compound present in so-called “two day” kava varieties.

As the Daily Post continued its investigation of the complaints and followed up extensively with Colmar and his representatives, a number of key facts became clear:

There is no direct link between the allegedly adulterated Starwest sample and Colmar’s kava.

According to the Stoner’s letter, the sample was obtained from a customer, who presumably bought the retail product either online or in a shop.

Starwest purchases kava from multiple suppliers, so even if that particular batch of kava did contain impurities—which Colmar insists is not the case—it does not follow that they originated from Colmar’s Santo operation.

The Starwest analysis, by contrast, is based on a shipment received from Colmar. The test was conducted months after Stoner’s analysis, but on the same dried powder product. It unambiguously shows that Colmar’s kava is “noble” and without “aerial” components.

Identical results
The Root of Happiness analysis shows identical results.

Both analyses were certified. According to a CV supplied following a request from the Daily Post, Stoner has no formal certifications relevant to the conduct of these tests. He has written one paper and made at least one presentation on the topic, however.

Colmar claims that Stoner’s equipment is antiquated and sub-par. When we asked Stoner to tell us more about his operations and methodology, he declined to provide any detail, stating only: “Analyses were made with state of the art instrumentation.”

Addressing the accusation that Colmar’s export operation was using the Palisi variety of kava, which he labelled a “two day” variety, Dr Schmidt was adamant.

In an early response to the Daily Post, Dr Schmidt wrote: “I have been in Peter Colmar’s warehouse myself, saw the piles of two-day material for myself, took a sample of his peelings, and could demonstrate that this was Palisi.”

Asked about this, Colmar replied that this visit took place “5-7 years ago”, before Dr Vincent Lebot had even formalised the concept of two-day kava, and long before any regulation or legislation was in place controlling its export.

He further stated that “an independent Santo kava exporter has had Palisi tested by the Vanuatu food lab and the result was noble, so either the classification of this kava type is wrong or the testing is not reliable”.

Visit happened in 2011
Only when asked specifically about the timing of his visit did Dr Schmidt admit that it took place in 2011, supporting Colmar’s version of events.

Colmar told the Daily Post he had concluded that Dr Schmidt was not acting in good faith, and he was considering his legal options.

Given the information obtained in our follow-up to this story, and based on numerous lengthy conversations with the parties concerned, it is now clear that, despite a good faith effort to contact the company for comment, the Daily Post did not present a complete picture in its original story.

This newspaper has sent emails containing the additional chemical analyses to Ambassador Joy, to Biosecurity and to Minister Matai Seremaiah, and asked them whether they still maintain their original opinion of the Santo-based kava exporter.

The Minister of Agriculture replied: “I am not a scientist to evaluate the results provided. However, my position as minister for MALFFB, if the exported kava is of good quality then there is no need for VCMB to cancel his/her licence.

“Every exporter must understand the difficulty of getting the kava cleared in the EU etc. and the least they could do is support the government to ensure only good quality if purchased from the farmers and to be exported.

“The ministry will be getting hard on those exporters who intentionally export low quality kava once the Kava [Act] Amendment is gazetted next week. In many occasions our staff at bio security were threatened while on duty to carry out quality checks. This has to stop.

“As long as the exporter (Sarami) complies with our laws and regulations, there will be no need for cancellation of their licence.”

‘Clean’ test testimonials
According to testimonials received by the Daily Post, Colmar is a supplier with a sterling reputation, whose products test “clean” on a consistent and regular basis. Any suggestion that his operation is not operating to a high standard is not supported by the evidence now in our possession.

The Daily Post sincerely apologises if readers inferred anything else from last week’s article. We regret that these mitigating and exculpatory facts were not available at the time the original article was printed.

Furthermore, we thank Colmar and his son Chris for their positive and helpful engagement in setting the record straight.

The Daily Post will report further on allegations of unequal treatment of kava suppliers, and will provide updates concerning reactions to the new data by public officials as and when they become available.

Dan McGarry is editorial director of the Vanuatu Daily Post. This article was published today in response to an earlier article published by the Daily Post and Asia Pacific Report.

Tess Newton Cain: We need a new law about kava … or do we?

The AUT Food Network has celebrated the commercial launch of the Nothing Else bar, a milestone achievement after years of rigorous research and taste trials.

The Nothing Else bar is a healthy snack bar, made up of just eight simple ingredients – the date and almond flavour contains oats, dates, almonds, oat bran, manuka honey, sunflower oil, flaxseed (linseed) and cinnamon.

The bars are not only more nutritious than typical muesli bars, but also have a low glycaemic index (GI) to keep hunger pangs at bay for longer.

The bars are now being manufactured and distributed by South Auckland food manufacturer AB Foods, in consultation with Auckland University of Technology’s professor of nutrition Elaine Rush and advertising creativity lecturer Dave Brown, who created the Nothing Else brand.

The product has been four years in the making, and was commercialised through AUT Enterprises Ltd (AUTEL).

Professor Rush says the collaboration brought organisations, experts and partners from many disciplines together, with the goal of providing a healthier food choice for consumers.

“Globally, there is a call for better value food. Yet there’s no shortage of unhealthy food in the market, so we need to work harder to improve the nutrition of New Zealanders – one bar at a time,” she says.

Ingredient transparency
On the creation of the Nothing Else brand, Brown explains it was specifically designed to be transparent about products’ ingredients.

“Consumers are surrounded by product labels with tempting yet questionable health claims. By being upfront and displaying the familiar, natural ingredients that go into Nothing Else products, we’re making it easier for customers to make their own choices,” he says.

The Nothing Else team has also introduced a vegan option for consumers, adding to the original date and almond bar with the addition of a cranberry and cashew version.

“The new flavour contains the sugar in the sweetened cranberries, rather than honey, making this bar a suitable option for consumers following a vegan diet,” says Professor Rush.