Indonesian Kretek History

History About Clove Cigarettes
Kretek or clove cigarettes. The word is unknown to most people outside Indonesia but anyone who has traveled through the archipelago will surely recall its unmistakable scent. Similarly, Indonesians who have ventured far beyond the borders of their native land find powerful memories of home thrust to the forefront of their minds whenever they catch a whiff of this blend of tobbaco and cloves.

What's so special about kretek?
THE SEARCH FOR SPICES launched the Age of Exploration, and cloves were one of the most coveted export products produced by what is now Indonesia. Today, however, Indonesia consumes all of her own clove production-and then some. Although throughout the centuries cloves have been used for perfume, embalming, relieving tooth pains, sweetening breath, and, of course, spicing food, they are most popular today in the unique clove cigarette. With a pleasant smell almost of incense and a sweet, cool taste something like a mentholated cigarette, clove cigarettes arc Indonesia's favorite smoke. Your first greeting when you land in Indonesia is a whiff of sweet and spicy cloyes as you walk past the airport customs gate.

Indonesians call the cigarettes kretek, an onomatopoeic word that suggests a crackling sound. A leisurely drag on a clove cigarette produces a faint sort of popping sound, like that of a distant forest fire, as the volatile clove oil is released from.-the spice within. Although brands vary in the proportion of cloves to tobacco, a kretek cigarette is about 30-50 percent cloves. Although American plain tobacco brands are also popular, kretek are by far the preferred smoke in Indonesia. In recent years, the scented cigarettes have even made small inroads into the U.S. market, cropping up at specialty tobacconists. ,

Since an average cigarette contains approximately one gram of cloves. Although precise figures are not available, a good estimate is that well over 100 million kretek cigarettes are manufactured in Indonesia every day. That means that over 100,000 kilograms of cloves are used daily, or about 40,000 metric tons per year, with a value of about U.S. $120 million. Indonesia has to import about 120,000 tons each year and has set self-sufficiency as a target. '11fis is big business. It is estimated that some 80 percent of Indonesia's tax incomc-20 to 25 percent of its total, income- comes from tobacco taxes.

Kretek cigarettes aren't cheap. A single stick of one of the better brands costs about Rp 50. That is considerable fraction of the average daily income of a Balinese, who might expect to cam somewhere in the neighborhood of Rp 1,000. This does not dim the popularity of kretek cigarettes. It is not uncommon to see people purchasing single cigarettes rather than buying them by the pack.

Cloves are the dried, unopened buds, of a tree that is a member of the myrtle or eucalyptus family. There is general disagreement among botanists about its proper genus and species. References are made to: Euqenia aromatica (the genus being named after Prince Eugene of Savoy' a patron of botany and horticulture), Eugenia caryaphyliata, Caiyophyllus aromaticus, Jambosa caryopbyuus, and Syzygium aromaticum. The tongue twister caryophyllus comes from the Greek word for the clove tree, karyopbyllon, from karyon, "nut," and phyllon, "I call" The closest the French could get to this was girop, which is their name for the clove tree - The English had trouble with the French word and changed it to -gilly flower." The French considered that cloves looked like nails. The French word for nail is clou so, in French, cloves are clow de girofle, from which our -clove."

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The word kretek describes an indigenous Indonesian tobacco product containing tobacco, cloves and flavoring, wrapped in either an ironed cornhusk or a slip of paper. It is widely believed that the name derives from the crackling sound that cloves make when burned - 'keretek-keretek'.

Kretek . The word is unknown to most people outside Indonesia but anyone who has traveled through the archipelago will surely recall its unmistakable scent. Similarly, Indonesians who have ventured far beyond the borders of their native land find powerful memories of home thrust to the forefront of their minds whenever they catch a whiff of this blend of tobbaco and cloves

What's so special about kretek?
In the first place, the manufacture of kretek is an incredibly complex process. Unlike the typical conventional cigarette which contains just tobacco, kretek possesses two other crucial ingredients - cloves and a mysterious 'sauce'. The making of kretek companies mainly use domestic tobaccos which, according to experts, rank as the most complex tobaccos in the world in terms of quality and variety. The diversity of locally-grown tobaccos is mainly caused by the traditional harvesting and curing methods which are still employed today. This reach choice of indegenous tobacco is exploited to the full by kretek manufacturers and a single brand of kretek may include over thirty different tobacco varieties, while employing more than one hundred different flavors in its sauce. Often, the tip of the rolling paper is dipped in saccharine, which adds to the sweetness of kretek and increases the subtle blend of flavors still further.

THE HISTORY OF KRETEK
Who really invented kretek?
It is very often the case with new ideas and inventions that there is a creator who comes up with the original concept and then someoe else who turns this invention into something commercial viable. The kretek industry is no exception - the only questions here being, "Who came up with the idea for a clove cigarette in the first place?"

While there are several claimants to the title of 'Creator of Kretek', evidance suggests that the honors should go to a resident of Kudus named Haji Jamahri. In the early 1880s, Haji Jamahri was suffering from a mild case of asthma. His symptoms were the typical chest pains and shortness of breath associated with this complaint. To ease his discomfort he rubbed clove oil (eugenol) on his chest - clove oil long having been used as an analgesic. Although the numbing agents in the eugenol gave some relief, Haji Jamahri still sought a way to bring the soothing cloves into even contact with his troubled lungs - perhaps if he sprinkled some cloves in tobacco and smoked it, this would do the trick?

According to the story, it most certainly did and Haji Jamahri's chest pains disappeared in an instant. Amazed at this relevation, he began market his invention to fellow residents in the Kudus region. He called his new cigarettes 'clove cigarettes', and intesetingly they were originally sold through pharmacies on account of their perceived medicinal qualities. Haji Jamahri passed away in 1890 before being able to commercialize the products successfully.

THE MAKING OF KRETEK: Stage One : The Field
The diorama featured above shows the initial stages in the kretek manufacturing process - those that take place before one enters the factory gates. In the background, moving from left to right, we see tobacco fields, corn fields and a clove plantation, with farm workers harvesting the tobacco leaves, picking corn cobs and plucking the unopened flowers buds from the clove trees.

In the foreground on the left, in front of the building with the traditional Javanese joglo roof, a man is cutting the tobacco leaves into strips. These are being laid out on mats by the women standing at the table, before being placed in the sun to dry.

In the middle foreground, on the right, the man seated on the mat is shucking the husk from the corn, which he then passes to the two women facing him who tie them into neat bundles and stack them in piles (behind) prior to storage (one can see heaps of dried cornhusks stashed away in the shed with the zinc roof in the background).

To the right of center, in the middleground, clove farmers with rakes are spreading out their newly-harvested crop to dry in the sun. When properly dried, the cloves are then put into sacks which will then be taken away to the buyer by the dokar (horse and cart) standing on the far right.

THE MAKING OF KRETEK :
Stage Two : The Factory
In this diorama, we witness the latter half of kretek manufacturing process - the stages that take place inside the factory. On the left we see women handrolling klobot in the time-honored manner, seated on the floor. One of them is ironing the dried cornhusks flat and in the background, through the open window, one can see workers spraying saccharine on the finished product.

In the middle of the diorama, the long line of women sitting at work benches are handrolling paper-wrapped kretek using traditional wooden rollers, while behind them, one can see the various tobacco-processing machines which are used in the preparation of the tobacco mixture prior to rolling.

They include tobacco-shredding machines, clove-cutting machines, and machinese that mix in the sauce. At the table in the foreground, a little to the right of center, a handroller's assistant submits a bundle of kretek to quality control, while at the table behind we see kretek which have passed inspection being put into packs.

These packs are then placed in cartons and are taken away by truck (right, background) to the retailers and other distribution outlets. Finally on the extreme right of the diorama, we see clerical workers handling the company's accounts.