Name: Gambung Tea in Limbo
Uploaded: 2020-02-07T04:50:09Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Nights are colder during the dry season in the highlands. In Gambung, we were kept warm by the hearth and the hospitality of tea pickers. We also discovered that the state of Gambung tea was rocky.

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Gambung Tea in Limbo

Nights are colder during the dry season in the highlands. In Gambung, we were kept warm by the hearth and the hospitality of tea pickers. We also discovered that the state of Gambung tea was rocky.

Mohammad Hilmi Faiq

· 6 minutes read

I wasn’t late evening yet. The call for Isya (evening prayer) had resounded only an hour and a half ago. But the night seemed to fall quickly around the Tea and Cinchona Research Center (PPTK) in Gambung, Pasirjambu, of Bandung regency, West Java. The quiet was only broken by the chirp of crickets amid the chill air.

On that Wednesday evening (19/6/2019), we were visiting one of the houses owned by the PPTK in Gambung, around 46 kilometers from Bandung municipality. It is among the oldest tea plantations in West Java, built by Rudolph Eduard Kerkhoven at the end of the 19th century. Hella S. Haasse tells the full story of the Gambung plantation in the novel Sang Juragan Teh (The Tea Master, 2015).

The house stands at an elevation of about 1,300 meters, and that evening’s temperature was 12 degrees Celsius. It was extremely cold for us, who were used to living in coastal regions like Jakarta.

The seven of us decided to close all the doors and gather in the sitting room. “Here’s white tea and hot water. Feel free to drink it so you don’t get a chill,” said Adang, the housekeeper, who seemed aware that we were cold, despite our jackets and socks.

Also read : Creating a Narrative before Our Stories of Tea Perish

Adang came again about 15 minutes later and lit the wood in the fireplace. It immediately heated the air in the room. We had gathered to ready the equipment we would be taking to the plantation the next morning. We planned to be up before sunrise to follow the workers who would be harvesting pekoe.

We ate snacks and sipped white tea during our brief meeting. It is said that white tea is good for the body and brain, and has a relaxing effect. Whether a suggested or real effect, my mind certainly grew calmer and my weariness faded after two cups of white tea. My colleagues also felt the same effect.

After the meeting and a chat, some of us went to the bedrooms while others remained in the sitting room, a few until dawn and the rest retired to the bedrooms once the fire died down and the room grew cold again.

Also read : Tea Business Trailblazers Seek Ways to Prosperity

Cheery plantation

It was a bright morning. The doors opened to a view of the green expanse of tea plants. We hurriedly went down the road after more than a dozen tea pickers ready to head to the plantation using village public transport. They led by PPTK plantation manager Adhi Irianto Mastur.

After climbing a steep road, we arrived at rows upon rows of tea plants growing on a slope rising above the valley. “Pluck the tea here first before moving on to the other side,” instructed Adhi.

The tea pickers fanned out in a neat line, their fingers adeptly plucking the leaf shoots (buds) from the tops of the plants, their young, light-green leaves still curled inward. After they are left to wilt and dry in the sun, they turn a silvery color. This has inspired the designation “silver needle white tea”.

We enjoyed the fresh air of the plantation. But what made us feel at home was the tea pickers’ warm welcomes. They conversed with us openly, like among old friends, bantering and teasing as they did amongst themselves.

Come, if you like. We share our breakfast here.

“We’ll soon be famous, like celebrities. Come, let’s take a pose,” said 49-year-old tea picker Mimin, speaking in Sundanese as we snapped photos for our articles.

After plucking tea for about four hours, the women sat in a circle and opened their packed meals. It was time for breakfast. Some brought rice, jengkol (dogfruit), fried tempeh and sambal (chili paste). Others brought fried salted fish and fresh vegetables, while still others brought sayur asam (sour vegetable soup). They shared their meals among the group.

“Come, if you like. We share our breakfast here,” said another tea picker, 52-year-old Nai Wikanah, tugging the hand of one of our colleagues. Some of us joined in the impromptu feast, another heartwarming moment among the sea of green.

Aroma

Adhi invited us on a tour of the PPTK Gambung tea factory of to watch how white tea is made, from drying to packaging. It was a relatively quick process because white tea does not require oxidation or roasting, only sun-drying. The drying room was comforting with the fresh scent of tea, a combination of fragrances that had a green scent, like the smell of newly cut grass. “I would say it’s like the smell of babies. It makes us happy,” said a female worker.

Then we entered an old, faded yellow building. Inside it were roaring giant machines processing leaves to make green tea. Green tea has become a mainstay of the factory as well as the nursery.

PPTK Gambung is now facing a new challenge. The company has been tasked with research and development under the auspices of the Agriculture Ministry since it was established in 1973. Therefore, it is a cost center of industry research.

Its achievements are indeed promising. PPTK Gambung has developed at least 11 clones of the assamica tea variety and five clones of the sinensis variety. The Gambung 07 clone of the assamica variety is widely planted in Indonesia, and is well-known for its dense leaves and resistance to disease. In other words, this clone developed by PPTK Gambung is the most productive variety of tea.

Even so, PPTK Gambung’s production factory was designated a state-owned enterprise in early last year and charged with turning a profit. It has thus sold 300 hectares of tea plants and seedlings. But its income isn’t yet optimal because no training in making profits has been provided.

“It’s been difficult even to operate,” PPTK director Dadan Rohdiana said, referring to the funds they raised from selling the 300 ha plot.

The PPTK has recorded a deficit every month. Fortunately, it was able to claim some receivables from several partners to cover the shortfall, but the financial impact has been significant. The salaries due on the 25th of each month are often late.

It also has 16 new clones that could potentially become prized tea varieties, but they cannot be released because of the financial constraints on conducting multi-location tests. The tests are vital to determining the clones’ stability in a variety of environmental conditions.

The reality seems to dispel the freshness of the tea plantation and the fragrance of the leaf shoots. One can only imagine that this impressive institution, PPTK Gambung, is starting to teeter precariously. The government needs to change its policy so the PPTK resumes its role as a research center, rather than a mere moneymaker.

From the factory, we made a short pilgrimage to the grave of Rudolph Eduard Kerkhoven, located in a corner of the tea estate. Amid the fresh breeze, we imagined Kerkhoven’s struggle as he cleared the forest and built a tea estate that enjoyed its heyday in the early independence period. Today, the fate of PPTK Gambung is again in the balance. (RTG)

Editor:

Syahnan Rangkuti

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