Maori name for an ornamental shrub of New Zealand, Macropiper excelsum. In Maori,Kawa = «unpleasant to the taste, bitter, sour.» (Williams.)The missionaries used to make small beer out of the Kawa-kawa.
1850. Major Greenwood, `Journey from Taupo to Auckland,'p. 30:
«The good missionary . . . thrust upon us . . . somebottles of a most refreshing light beverage made from theleaves of the kawa-kawa tree, which in taste much resembledginger-beer.»
1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences, or Incidents ofThirty-four Years in New Zealand,' p. 104:
«Our tea was made from the dried leaves of a native shrub,of a very spicy flavour, and known as the kawakawa, too pungentif used fresh and green.»
1896. `Otago Witness,' June 4, p. 49:
«The tints of kawa, of birch and broadleaf, of rimu and matai are blended together into one darkindivisible green.»