Local Drinks

1. ʻAwa

   ʻAwa (kava, the root drink)

   Usage

   PE: "The kava (Piper methysticum) … the root being the source of a narcotic drink of the same name used in ceremonies," prepared "formerly by chewing, later by pounding. The comminuted particles were mixed with water and strained." ʻAwa bars still operate in Honolulu and Hilo, serving it in coconut-shell bowls

   Grammar Note

   Note the spelling: Hawaiian has ʻawa, not Samoan ʻava or the English (via Fijian) kava. PE gives the same spelling a stative sense "sour, bitter, poisonous," and notes that drunk to excess it caused drowsiness and, rarely, scaly skin and bloodshot eyes

2. Wai niu

   Wai niu (coconut water or cream)

   Usage

   PE: "Coconut water or cream (the distinction was not clear)." Drunk straight from a cracked nut, and sold at farmers' markets as a green nut with a straw; in cooking the cream goes into kūlolo and lūʻau

   Grammar Note

   PE gives the example "Wai o ka niu, coconut cream" and cross-references kai niu and wailewa. Sea water is kai, not wai, so do not confuse the two

3. Kope

   Kope (coffee)

   Usage

   PE: "Coffee, coffee beans," marked as a borrowing from English. It is grown in Kona and Kaʻū on Hawaiʻi Island and at Kāʻanapali on Maui, but signs and menus almost always read "Kona coffee" in English; the Hawaiian word is kope

   Grammar Note

   The same spelling covers other words: PE's first sense is "rake, shovel, dredge; to rake, scratch" and its third is "copy, duplicate." The drink is the second sense

4. Kī

   Kī (tea)

   Usage

   PE lists "tea," marked as a borrowing from English. Use it when ordering at a hotel breakfast or a café

   Grammar Note

   The same spelling is also a completely different word: PE gives "ti, a woody plant (Cordyline terminalis) in the lily family, native to tropical Asia and Australia." Its leaves wrap laulau and make hula skirts, and its root is distilled into ʻōkolehao (see the Indulgences category). In Hawaiʻi a "ki leaf" is this plant, not a tea leaf

5. Wai puna

   Wai puna (spring water)

   Usage

   PE: "Spring water." Hawaiʻi's tap water is groundwater filtered through volcanic rock, and on some islands you can still fill a bottle at a spring. Bottled water already has a card in haw/the Café & Drinks category

   Grammar Note

   PE also records a figurative sense, "a sweetheart," and cites the Proto-Polynesian form wai puna. The Hawaiʻi Island district name Puna is the same word

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