A Fiji-born business leader is selling Sparkling Kava on Tap.
Tricia Emberson and her family introduced the new product after they took over Pacific Brewing Tonga, which subsequently launched the initiative at Reload Bar, Nuku’alofa.
The project, ongoing for two years, is a demonstration of blending tradition with innovation.
The company plans to add flavoured kava drinks in the future.
She said the lockdowns during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and January 15, 2022, Hunga TongaHunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami, forced her and her team to look at options to keep their business afloat.
They took over Pacific Brewing in 2017 to create beer in Tonga.
Sparkling kava served at Reload Bar, Nuku’alofa, Tonga … an innovation as a result of the covid pandemic.
Rebranded Pacific beer
The company rebranded its beer using the names of Polynesian mythical gods, which she said “was sort of the trend and of the time”.
Sparkling Kava is the result of two years of research and work, with the focus on making the drink available for market feedback.
“And because my background is in exports and knowing to make the business viable, I started looking at what we could do to export from Tonga,” Emberson said.
“Through Reload Bar, we’re going to do the market research because we want the opinions not only of Tongans but foreigners, to see if this is something they would drink.”
Longer-term plans
Emberson said consideration was given to manufacturing ready to drink kava, in cans or bottles.
Emberson to Tonga in 1990 to invest in the fisheries sector, setting up Alatini Fisheries.
“The fact that although many tourists had in the past wanted to taste kava, but were not able to, because it was not readily available, was another factor in them going the way they have,” she said.
“That was the other reason 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 … all the locally available drinks.
Fiji is Better
Emberson said the private sector in small island countries in the Pacific needed more support.
Her family shut down their fisheries business because of the high costs of operations.
“I think Fiji is a little bit bit better,” she said.
“But in some of the smaller Pacific islands, 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 business.”
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