Warung Tinggi: A coffee story<\/p>\n
Yenni Kwok, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Tucked away in a small alley off Jl. Hayam Wuruk in Chinatown is
\na well-kept Jakarta secret -- Warung Tinggi coffee shop.<\/p>\n
It boasts that it is Indonesia's oldest coffee company, with a
\nhistory going back over 125 years. \"Our coffee has come a long
\nway, since the Dutch era, and the knowledge and expertise about
\ncoffee has been passed on from one generation to another,\" says
\nRudy Widjaja, the fourth-generation owner of Warung Tinggi.<\/p>\n
In this modest, no-frills shop-house, you can buy coffee
\nbeans, have them ground, and also sample a cup of freshly brewed
\ncoffee of your choice.<\/p>\n
The family-run business prides itself at selling its own
\nunique blends of the archipelago's best coffees, from Java, Bali,
\nToraja, Sumatra's Mandailing, Lampung, East Timor and even West
\nPapua.<\/p>\n
Warung Tinggi started in 1878, when Rudy's great-grandfather,
\nLiauw Tek Soen, a Hakka migrant from the southern Chinese
\nprovince of Guangdong, and his wife, an indigenous pribumi woman,
\nopened a warung, a small eatery, on Jl Hayam Wuruk, not far from
\nwhere the shop is now.<\/p>\n
The locals called Liauw's shop Warung Tinggi (the high
\nwarung), because it was located on higher ground than the
\nsurrounding area.<\/p>\n
Legend has it that the coffee of Warung Tinggi was more
\npopular than its own dishes. Liauw was a tailor by training, but
\nhe proved to have a talent in preparing coffee.<\/p>\n
He bought the raw materials from women foot-peddlers, who
\ncarried the coffee beans in a bamboo-woven basket on their head
\n(and, whose image later became the logo of Warung Tinggi). Liauw
\nroasted the beans on a big wok, sifted and ground them.<\/p>\n
In 1927, the eldest of Liauw's three sons, Liauw Sim Yao,
\nstarted to run the business and expanded the coffee operation. He
\ndesigned and built a coffee-roasting machine to roast the coffee
\nbetter. In honor of his father, Sim Yao named the business Tek
\nSoen Hoo Eerste Weltevredensche Koffiebranderij, which roughly
\ntranslates as Tek Soen's Shop, the First Coffee Roasting Company
\nin Weltevreden (today's Kota).<\/p>\n
Liauw Sim Yao's first son, Liauw Tian Djie, later known as
\nUdjan Widjaja, inherited the company in 1948. At that time,
\nWarung Tinggi sold only one kind of coffee, packed in simple
\nbrown paper.<\/p>\n
\"In the 1950s and 1960s, my father started to make more coffee
\nblends,\" Rudy Widjaja, 64, said about Udjan. \"Many of our
\ncustomers were coffee addicts. The business kept growing,
\nalthough we did not advertise our products. New customers came by
\nword of mouth.\"<\/p>\n
The names of the shop and the family were changed in 1967
\nafter Soeharto's New Order regime discouraged the use of Chinese
\nnames. Tek Soen Hoo became Warung Tinggi. After consulting the
\nJavanese primbon (divination manuals), the Liauws became the
\nWidjajas.<\/p>\n
After Udjan died in 1978, four of his 11 children -- Rudy,
\nDarmawan, Suyanto and Yanti -- ran Warung Tinggi. Rudy was in
\ncharge of administration and marketing, Dharmawan of production
\nand purchasing raw materials, Suyanto of production and sales,
\nand Yanti was responsible for accounting and finance.<\/p>\n
In the mid-1990s, the Widjajas decided to split the family's
\nheirloom.<\/p>\n
One son got the shop building on Jl Hayam Wuruk, Rudy procured
\nthe name and business rights of Warung Tinggi, while the rest
\nshared the money inheritance. The shop was moved to its current
\nlocation on Jl Tangki Sekolah while the factory was relocated to
\nDaan Mogot.<\/p>\n
During the May riots in 1998, his factory and house in Daan
\nMogot was looted. Rudy Widjaja and his family fled to Singapore
\nand stayed there for one-and-a-half years. \"I brought the
\nimportant documents only, arrived in Singapore wearing a pair of
\nflip-flops. I was traumatized, but I decided to come back later
\nbecause what could I do in Singapore? My life was in Indonesia,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
After his return, he moved the factory to Tangerang. However,
\nanother tragedy struck some years later. In 2002, His son, Ferry,
\nwhom he had groomed as his successor, died in an accident. It hit
\nhim very hard but he also bounced back, eventually.<\/p>\n
He is currently training his youngest daughter, Angelica, 25,
\nin coffee production. \"She isn't quite there yet, but I told her,
\n`It doesn't matter. It took your brother some years to learn the
\nropes.'\"<\/p>\n
\"Indonesian coffee is among the best in the world, although in
\nquantity, it lags behind the three largest producers, Brazil,
\nColombia and Vietnam,\" said Rudy.<\/p>\n
\"Coffee is planted and produced all across Indonesia, but the
\nquality and taste vary, depending on the climate, the soil and
\nthe care. Toraja coffee, I would say, is number one. But, in
\nWarung Tinggi, we blend different coffee beans from various parts
\nof Indonesia to get the best mix.\"<\/p>\n
Warung Tinggi coffee provides eight types of coffee blends,
\nfrom robusta, to arabica, from `male' and `female' beans to
\n`excellence', with prices ranging from Rp 12,500 to Rp 87,500 per
\n250 grams.<\/p>\n
For generations, Warung Tinggi has been a quintessentially
\nfamily-run business that has stayed put in its Chinatown locale.
\nBut in this era of globalization, where franchise cafes are
\nproliferating, it is looking to expand its business, opening
\ncafes, albeit likely to start outside Jakarta, and producing
\nflavored coffee.<\/p>\n
Rudy does not see any competition with the other branch of the
\nWidjaja family, his nephew and niece, who recently opened Bakoel
\nKoffie cafes. \"The most important thing is to maintain the high
\nquality of our blends,\" he said. \"That has been the recipe for
\nour survival over all these years.\"<\/p>\n
Warung Tinggi, Jl Tangki Sekolah No. 26 (off Jl Hayam Wuruk),
\nJakarta 11170. Tel 6256843, 6256875<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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