Speaking of coffee, Indonesia is the 4th largest producer of specialty coffee in the world. Indonesia only loses to Brazil, Colombia, and another Southeast Asian country, Vietnam.
As reported by Brilio, currently the best and most delicious coffee in Indonesia is arabica coffee from the Gayo region. But did you know that in Ciwidey, Bandung there is a specialty coffee that was once number 1 in the world?
Reporting from kopimalabarindonesia.com, at that time Amsterdam Mayor Nicholas Witsen ordered the Dutch commander in Malabar, India to bring arabica coffee seeds to Indonesia. However, the planting effort failed due to natural disasters.
Furthermore, the Dutch re-established the first coffee plantation in the Priangan area, West Java with a forced planting system and succeeded in producing the best quality coffee in the world.
Named Java Preanger
The coffee is called Java Preanger, commonly referred to by locals as Sunda Buhun (West Java, Indonesia). This coffee was so famous throughout Europe in the 17th to 18th centuries.
At that time it was said that coffee from the Bandung plains was considered number one. It is suspected that the high altitude also affects the taste of the arabica type coffee.
Hundreds of Years Old
Buhun is a local term to mention the age element of the type of coffee found in the Ciwidey area.
Reporting from Mongabay.co.id, Java Preanger Coffee was first planted in 1706. Previously, this type of coffee was tried to be planted by the Dutch in 1696 but failed because there was a natural disaster that damaged the coffee plant.
Tested in the Netherlands
The Java Preanger coffee was then brought back to the Netherlands to be studied at the Amsterdam botanical garden for cultivation.
It turned out that Java Preanger Coffee experienced great success. Many residents in the Netherlands and other Europeans also like the coffee typical of the Sunda region.
The Best Coffee in the World
After the coffee was brought to Europe and introduced there, the Europeans really liked it.
In fact, according to researchers in Amsterdam at that time, Java Preanger Coffee was considered the number one coffee in the world so Europeans did not call the drink a cup of coffee, but a cup of Java (a Cup of Java) because of its authenticity.
Spread to Several Regions in Indonesia
Furthermore, the coffee plants were used as seeds for all coffee plantations developed by the Dutch government as an effort to introduce a new type of coffee that was a great success in Europe. The Dutch expanded the coffee cultivation area to several regions in Indonesia, such as Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali, Timor and other islands in the archipelago.
Experiencing Ups and Downs
Cucu Samsudin, a farmer and coffee legend in Mekarwangi, Ciwidey, explained that after the Japanese colonization, the prestige of Java Preanger coffee has decreased.
According to him, the tradition of drinking coffee that had been maintained for hundreds of years since the Japanese colonization began to disappear and was replaced by other commodities such as fruit and tea.
However, according to Cucu, the spirit of residents to return to planting premium Sundanese coffee grew again in the 1998s, so he and some of his friends, Sugiri and Samsudin tried to plant coffee again in bulk in the form of plantations.
Source: West Java Local Media (Merdeka.com) dated March 16, 2020