Local Drinks

1. Kulau

   Kulau (young green coconut and its water)

   Usage

   The commonest drink on the coast. A still-green nut is chopped open and you drink the water inside. Sold in heaps at markets and roadsides and opened for you on the spot, at air temperature rather than chilled

   Grammar Note

   The word splits by ripeness: "kulau" is the young green nut, "drai" the old dry one, "kokonas" the palm itself. Asking for "kokonas" asks for the tree.

2. Kopi

   Coffee

   Usage

   PNG grows arabica; coffee is the country's second-largest agricultural export after oil palm. Smallholders in Eastern Highlands, Western Highlands and Simbu grow it in "coffee gardens" alongside their food crops, so highland towns pour genuinely local beans

   Grammar Note

   The spelling is "kopi" ("kofi" follows the English spelling). It has two senses, the plant and the drink

3. Ti

   Tea

   Usage

   Popular on the coast, usually served steaming hot, black and very sweet.

   Grammar Note

   Glossed as "tea (in liquid form)". For the vessel: "kap ti" (teacup), "kapti" (a cup of tea), "tipot" (teapot)

4. Grinpela ti

   Green tea

   Usage

   An import you will find in supermarkets and town cafes; do not expect it in villages or small trade stores

   Grammar Note

   Adjectives precede the noun and usually take the suffix -pela ("grin" → "grinpela", "bik" → "bikpela", "kol" → "kolpela")

5. Jus

   Juice

   Usage

   Fruit juice from a carton or can; usually a packaged product rather than something freshly squeezed

6. Moliwara

   Lemonade

   Usage

   "moli" (lemon, citrus) + "wara" (water). The same word as "muli" (orange); both spellings are in use

   Grammar Note

   The variant "muliwara" is an alternative form of "moliwara"; the synonym is "lemonad". Note that "switmoli" / "switmuli", built on the same root, is the orange fruit, not a drink

7. Loliwara

   Soft drink

   Usage

   Warm on the shelf of even the smallest trade store. Add "kolpela" if you want a cold one

   Grammar Note

   "loli" (candy) + "wara" (water) — "sweet water". A typical Tok Pisin coinage: it is not a phonetic rendering of English "soft drink"

8. Milis

   Coconut milk

   Usage

   The thick liquid pressed from grated mature coconut flesh. Less a drink in itself than the liquid coastal cooking is simmered in, with fish or greens. Not the same thing as the water of a young nut (kulau)

   Grammar Note

   Borrowed from German "Milch" (a trace of German rule in north-east PNG until 1914). Prefer it to the synonym "melek", whose second sense is "semen". There is also the phrase "susu o gris bilong kokonas"

9. Kakao

   Cocoa

   Usage

   PNG grows cacao too, mostly on smallholdings in East New Britain and Bougainville. The same word "kakao" covers the drink and the crop

10. Kolwara

    Fresh water

    Usage

    Water without salt, as opposed to "solwara" (the sea). The word to use when asking on an island or the coast whether there is drinking water. Boil anything untreated, or buy bottled ("wara bilong botol")

    Grammar Note

    Formed from "kol" (cold) + "wara" (water), but it means fresh water, not cold water, and points to "solwara" (the sea) as its opposite. For a cold drink say "kolpela wara" — as in "Yu gat kolpela wara?"

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