teraju
BY ALEXANDER MERING
Did you know that coffee from producing countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean and even Mexico, started out with coffee seeds from the island of Java?
Prawoto Indarto, in his book*, ‘The Road to Java Coffee’ mentioned that during the 15th till 16th century, coffee had only been cultivated in the Arabian Peninsula.
According to data in the Coffee and Cacao Trade Journal (1964:29), Netherlands, through the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) had obtained permission from the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, to open branches in the city of Aden and Mocha, a port city in Yemen.
At the time, trade fights over coffee rights were fierce. To break the monopoly held by Arab coffee traders, the Netherlands opened new coffee plantations outside Mocha. This move also allowed the VOC to export coffee seeds to many countries in Asia and Europe.
In 1696, Nicolaes Witsen VOC’s administrator who was also Amsterdam’s mayor, commanded the VOC troops to bring Coffea Arabica seeds from Malabar Coast, India to Java. These seeds were planted in Kampung Melayu, Bifara China (Bidaracina), Maester Cornelis (Jatinegara), Palmerah, Sukabumi, and Sudimara.
In 1706 botanists in Amsterdam, through their research, discovered that coffee grown on Java island had produced high quality coffee seeds. They recommended that the Java coffee seeds be cultivated and distributed to botanical gardens in Europe. The coffee seeds were also sent to the botanical garden of King Louis XIV.
It was then that Java coffee seeds were officially brought to Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean through the Royal Botanic Gardens Jardine de Plantes. Through the Martinique plantations, the coffee first planted in Java became the early seeds of Coffee Arabica grown in various plantations of coffee producing countries in the world.
“In 1711, Java coffee broke the highest price sold at the auction house in Amsterdam,” said Prawoto. Moreover, 90 percent of coffee (equivalent to 2,145 tonnes) auctioned in Amsterdam were originally from Java Island.
Since 1726, Java coffee dominated the Mocha coffee market in Europe.
(*In an interview by Tempo with Prabowo Indarto at the Jagongan Ngopi Neng Solo event in Pasar Gede, Surakarta, 30 September 2016).
