History of Tea in Indonesia
A Brief Summary
Tea Comes to Europe Via Indonesia
In 1607, the Dutch East India Company acquired tea from Chinese merchants at Macao for transport to Batam in western Java, the first known shipment of the leaf by a European carrier. A transfer of tea from Hirado in western Japan to Bantam was made by the Dutch before sailing to Holland for its debut in Amsterdam in 1610. The Dutch initially carried only small shipments of tea from the Indies. The herb was not even mentioned in official Company correspondence until 1637 when the directors, sensing a small but growing taste for the leaf, expressed to their governor-general at Batavia that “As tea begins to come into use by some of the people, we expect some jars of Chinese as well as Japanese tea with each ship.”The Dutch dominated the tea trade in Europe in the early 1600’s. After Indonesia became part of Portuguese’s secret sea route, where merchants could sail around Africa instead of through India to get to Molucca Islands, the Dutch began to base themselves in Indonesia as a stopping point between Amsterdam and their trading partners – China, Japan, and Macao. Soon, with burgeoning tea plantations cultivated in India, the British took over.
Chinese Tea Fails, Indian Tea Succeeds.
The tea plant first entered Indonesia in 1684, in the form of tea seed of the Camellia Sinensis plant from China brought by a German named Andreas Cleyer, and planted initially as ornamental in Jakarta, and ultimately to compete with the British tea production in India. Unfortunately, the Chinese tea bushes didn’t grow well and tea cultivation was stopped in its tracks.
Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, started flourishing as a tea-growing land when the Dutch planted India’s Assam teas in Java in the 1800s. When the Dutch botanist, R.E. Kerkhoven, returned with India’s tea plants, formally known as the assamica variant, the bushes thrived in Java’s rich, tropical soil and hot, humid weather. The plantations continued thriving and spread to the mountainous regions of Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. The Dutch government introduced Cultuurstelsel in the 1800’s, where Indonesian locals had to grow tea on their land and sell it to the Dutch after harvesting. Tea-growing continued burgeoning until the government decided to run its own plantation. The years of growing teas for the Dutch resulted in local Javanese tea-drinking culture. Second-class leaves were brewed as part of their morning rite.
Golden Years for Indonesian Tea.
After a policy change in the late 1800’s, Dutch private companies started running the plantations under a land-rental basis, and tea entered its golden years in the archipelagic nation. By the 1830s, large-scale gardens had been planted in West Java, and Indonesian black tea was being shipped to Holland for auction in the Amsterdam tea auctions. In 1910, Sumatra also started producing tea, and by the early part of the 20th century, the country was the fourth largest tea producer in the world. Ironically, the plantations went into disrepair when the Japanese occupied the islands during World War II. More than half of the tea gardens were severely damaged and factories were left empty.
Indonesian Freedom.
Independence soon followed for Indonesia. It was not until the 1980s that a recovery program was introduced by the government. More recently, tea production has been in decline and the Indonesian Tea Board is trying to regenerate activity by working with smallholders to improve quality, productivity, marketing strategies, and welfare for farming families.
Indonesian Tea Today.
Now, the diverse country with over 17,000 islands is best known for producing rich, full-bodied black teas, along with oolong and green teas, reflecting the country’s rich and complex terrain. The conditions for growing tea here are extremely favorable. The Indonesian archipelago lies right on the equator, so tea can be grown throughout the year. a volcano that stretches 3,173 meters (10,410 feet) above its tropical surroundings and has a large bearing on climactic conditions in the region. The nutrient rich volcanic soil of the area combined with intense tropical heat and humidity produces teas with a delicate floral aroma and round body with hints of malt and faint touches of tropical sweetness on the finish. Perfect conditions for the mainly assamica bushes that were planted here (the sinensis plants did not originally thrive when planted in the 17th century).
In the mountains, the air is cooler and suits the sinensis varietals that are cultivated in a few locations. Most growers produce black CTC (crush, tear, curl) teas, which give reddish-brown liquors that are a little like Ceylon teas and are strong and flavory with a slightly bitter-sweet aftertaste.
While Indonesia currently stands as the 7th largest tea exporter worldwide and there seems to be no doubt about the quality of Indonesian tea (a study by a tea research center in China found that Indonesian tea has more antioxidants than varieties grown in Japan and China), tea production and likewise, exports continue to decline.
References:
- https://factsofindonesia.com/brief-history-tea-indonesia
- https://www.itpcia.com/post/read/the-origin-of-indonesia-s-full-bodied-teas-through-continents-and-centures-a-story-of indonesia-s-tea
- https://medium.com-@teforia/the-teas-of-indonesia-aea691f57402
- https://theculturetrip.com/asia/indonesia/articles/the-10-best-ecotourism-experiences-near-jakarta-indonesia
- http://chadao.blogspot.com/2010