Traditions to Cut Bitter Taste of Coffee

· 7 minutes read

Coffee and sugar are recorded in the history of civilization in this country. In the past, when knowledge and technology were not yet widespread, people searched for ways to enjoy coffee by using a variety of methods to try and reduce the bitterness of the black beverage.

"Let\'s taste it. The coffee is thick, but it seems naturally sweet, right? Fresher," Rosmina, 35, a resident of Jambi Tulo village in Maro Sebo district, Muaro Jambi, Jambi province, said on Thursday (10/5/2017).

She poured the coffee into glasses that she then distributed to her guests. Out of curiosity, the guests immediately sipped the beverage, which was said to be special.

This coffee drink is indeed special. To brew it, Rosmina used the traditional method of tapping enau or nira palms to extract neera, or palm nectar. After one to two hours, the droplets of nectar are collected from the trees in a container. At first glance, the liquid looks like coconut water, but when tasted, it is fresh and naturally sweet. But the nectar is not drunk directly.

Rosmina first boiled the nectar in a kettle and then used the liquid to steep the coffee powder. The resulting coffee tastes slightly sweet and is called kopi tuak (palm nectar coffee).

In the local Malay language, tuak refers to neera. This coffee beverage is not as intoxicating as the air tuak (neera water), a traditional drink in North Sumatra, as the neera has not had time to ferment and turn into alcohol, as it is consumed shortly after it is tapped.

Compared with palm sugar, the sweetness of neera is more refreshing. It is easy for the local people to tap the palm trees that grow well in the village. "Whenever it is needed, the nectar can be tapped directly from the trees," Rosmina said. During rice harvests or celebratory events in the village, tuak coffee is often the main drink, and the events are incomplete without tuak coffee.

In Sumatra, neera and palm sugar were used as natural sweeteners for coffee, long before the entry of granulated sugar.

When visiting Sumatra in the 13th century, Marco Polo made notes on the enau or nira palms that grew in the lowlands; the notes that Anthony Reid compiled in Sumatera Tempo Doeloe in 1995 mentioned that the trees had four distinct leaves, and that the Acehnese people placed jars beneath the stems of the leaves. It took a single day and night for the jars to fill with nectar. The drinks produced from Acehnese neera were flavorful, and could also be used as an all-around medicinal cure.

The trees in question turned out to be a species of toddy palm.

Eight centuries have passed, and the nectar produced from tapping palm trees are still being used today. In fact, neera and coffee are closely connected to the Osing traditional community in Banyuwangi. The Osing people in Banjar village of Licin district, Banyuwangi regency, enjoy coffee with sugar made from neera.

Neera is specially prepared for mixing with coffee. The nectar is boiled in a large pot on a wood stove to reduce and thicken. The reduced nectar, called ketek banyu or ketek semut, is then shaped into rounds before they are served as an accompaniment to coffee.

"The coffee is the bitter Robusta coffee, which the farmers harvest at the plantation and process. The way to enjoy it is to nibble the sugar and sip the coffee," said Muhammad Lutfi, a Banjar village official.

This beverage is usually served on certain occasions such as the neera tapping festival. After the festival, the people drink the coffee while enjoying a number of village performances. When serving the coffee, the people will use their family’s heirloom of small and thin cups. These special cups are used only on certain occasions, such as receiving important guests.

Neera and coffee are indeed treasures of the village’s plantation on the slopes of Mount Ijen. Neera is a part of its ancestral wealth, while coffee was originally brought by the Dutch to Ijen in the 19th century.

The Osing community’s neera tapping festival also has its own uniqueness and mystical value. When tapping the palm trees, the Osing people wear black clothing and sing a special hymn and mantra, which are believed to encourage the palm trees to produce large quantities of the nectar.

The people in Kerinci and West Sumatra also have a unique method. The coffee they enjoy is made from boiling withered and dried coffee leaves. It is not as bitter as the typically brewed coffee. Perhaps it is more appropriately called a tea brewed from coffee leaves, or kawa.

Some people enjoy kawa in coconut shells. Drunk while still warm, the water is very refreshing. "The body also feels more energized," said Bulyadi, who lives near Lake Keliling in Kerinci.

For a sweeter beverage, they add palm sugar. The palm sugar is placed in the coconut shells and left for a moment to begin melting, or the shells are spun to melt the sugar before adding the brew to make a sweeter “tea”.

Sugarcane cultivation is a relatively recent development in the archipelago. Sugar is now abundant, with supplies that extend even to the remote areas and have started to replace palm sugar and neera. Some people in the remote areas of the Gayo Highlands now use it in their coffee. Sugarcane is processed not only into granulated sugar, but also brown sugar.

On Java, sugar has becomes an integral part of coffee. Surabaya’s traditional coffee is kopi tubruk, a kind of steeped coffee. The coffee is usually served in glasses with sugar that has already been mixed in. Before the emergence of coffee stalls, drinking coffee was a social custom. Customers would sit around a pot of coffee while talking about daily matters while the itinerant coffee vendors served traditional snacks such as grobyak, jemblem, bledus, lopis and telek kucing.

It is believed that coffee drinking has been a Surabaya custom since the beginning of the 20th century. The local ground coffee has been around since the 1930s under the Hap Hoo Tjan brand. This coffee was developed until 1983 by Goe Soe Loet, whose children became the founders of the Kapal Api coffee company.

Dukut Imam Widodo, the author of Monggo Dipun Badhog, noted that a number of cafes existed in Surabaya according to a telephone book published in 1930. The cafes included Café De Karsebom on Jl. Gemblongan, Café Biljart De Kroom on Jl. Van Deventerlaan, Café Neutraal on Jl. Lange Gattottan and Café Biljart Tonny on Jl. Baliwerti. Unfortunately these historical cafes can no longer be found today.

Coffee shops and food stalls are believed to have existed since the 1950s and were managed by non-Dutch European descendants, such as Warkop Sarkam on Jl. Nyamplungan and a warkop (coffee stall) on Gang Pabean Kulon V, both located within the Sunan Ampel Religious Tourism district. Moreover, the Cak Mis food stall on Jl. Bintoro is known for its unique names for a variety of food, drinks and snacks.

Respecting coffee

At the coffee processing center of Ulee Kareng in Banda Aceh, freshly roasted coffee is transferred into containers. The coffee beans are stirred with butter and eggs to cool. The addition of these ingredients produces a thick and tasty coffee beverage.

"Many coffee enthusiasts love the taste of this savory coffee. They can order them anywhere," said Ida Arifin, who owns a coffee processing business in Ulee Kareng.

However, there are others that serve bitter coffee as a treat. In Colol of East Manggarai, Flores Island, for example, bitter coffee called is kopacol – Colol bitter coffee – is served. The local people are used to drinking coffee without sugar. The taste is certainly bitter, particularly as the coffee is Robusta.

Kopacol is served together with dried fried rice cookies. According to Agustinus Songsi, a coffee farmer in Colol, the tradition of drinking bitter coffee did not grow from difficulty obtaining sugar. "This has been a tradition since our ancestors. This is how we appreciate coffee," he said.

These traditional coffees survive amid the current trend of enjoying the original flavor of coffee. The diversity of traditional coffees has even colored the archipelago’s culinary scene. Whether the coffee is bitter, sweet or savory does not matter, because when it comes to taste, everyone has their own palate.

(AIN/ITA/BRO/NIT/GRE)

Editor:

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