A cup of Javanese coffee from the good all days

A cup of Javanese coffee from the good all days

By Sie Yoe Lien

BANDUNG (JP): One of Indonesia's finest coffee stores is
nestled in downtown Bandung on a noisy, haphazard street lined
with stores full of new and not-so-new electronic goods and
automotive spare parts.

Flanked on either side by stalls stands a plain white art deco
bearing a sign identifying it as the Aroma coffee store. Here,
the delicious bean is stored, processed and sold in exactly the
same way it has for nearly 70 years.

"Processing good coffee is just like cooking gourmet food, it
cannot be speeded up or enhanced by modern technology," says
Widyapratama, who took over Aroma from his father, the founder of
the store.

The slick and harried world of the 1990s immediately
disappears the moment a customer enters through a narrow wood-
paneled door to find glass jars chock full of coffee beans atop
heavy wood furniture.

The 60-year-old German coffee grinders, often used as
atmosphere enhancers at fashionable cafes, are still in full use
at Aroma.

"I've tried those modern Taiwanese grinders, but before you
know it they're broken," Widya said as ran his fingertips lightly
along the sharp blade of the Hamburg grinders. "These German
ones, they just don't quit."

The reliable German machinery does not stop at the storefront.
Connected to the shop is a high-ceilinged warehouse and factory
where Widya stores and processes the fragrant beans.

The factory is a compilation of clunky iron machinery which
resembles a 19th century industrial revolution hall at Western
museums. The coffee roaster, with the date 1936 printed on its
side, has a big hollowed iron ball, where the beans are placed,
which rotates above a slow fire.

"Almost all the equipment and items I use are from the days of
my father, even the brown paper bags we package our coffee in
were ordered from Holland in the 1940s," he said. "Those were the
days when people knew how to make quality products."

The dark warehouse is piled high with sacks of coffee. These
contain Arabica beans, which are stored for an average of seven
to eight years, and Robusta beans kept for three years or less.

"That's how long it takes for the beans to be ready for
processing, completely removing the bitterness from the beans,"
Widya said. He added disdainfully that "in these times the beans
are all treated with chemicals to enhance their flavor. I refuse
to do that."

Passionate trade

It is an understatement to describe the smiling 45-year old
man as passionate about his trade. He seems to know everything
there is to know about coffee, and then some, from how the beans
should be stored ("only in jute sacks, never plastic ones which
do not let the beans breathe") to how to prepare excellent iced
coffee ("prepare it and then put it in the fridge, never put ice
cubes in it like they do in those so-called cafes").

"It's like second nature to me; when I see a bean, I know from
its color and texture how old it is, how good it is, and from
which region it comes from," he said.

Widya buys his coffee from all over Indonesia, including Aceh,
Timor, Toraja and West Java, "to assure a good blend of taste".

"A cup of coffee should only be worth drinking when it's
foamy," he said, proudly presenting a cup of jet black coffee,
crowned with foam.

Coffee calling

The cup of coffee was indeed a special treat as Aroma has
maintained its core business as a store, and emphatically not a
cafe, since 16-year-old Tan Houw Sian started Aroma in 1930.

"Many people have urged me to start a cafe, but that's not my
calling," Widya said. "I like what I do now and my customers like
my product. Why would I want anything else?"

And what customers he has, from the Chedi and Savoy Homan,
Bandung's premier hotels, to several foreign missions and the
Regent and Mandarin hotels in Jakarta, just to name a few.

"We blend Aroma coffee with other beans as it is too strong
for some people," a manager of the Chedi said.

He added that his family has been drinking Aroma coffee "since
my grandmother's generation."

While some people may be skeptical about the meticulousness in
which Widya prepares his prized beans, many of his customers
swear by Aroma coffee.

"It's like nothing I've ever tasted before... It has such a
complex taste with a smooth finish that lingers," said Kirk
Coughlin, an American executive residing in Bandung for a year.

Coughlin, who was in the store to purchase his regular supply,
said he has delighted many friends and family members with gifts
of the coffee in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.

Widya said the store has never advertised its product, coyly
adding that "our quality is advertisement enough."

Yet, like all small family businesses, the lingering question
remains -- who will carry on the tradition?

"I'm not sure," Widya's 13-year-old daughter Monika answered
shyly when asked whether she or her two younger sisters would be
the third generation of Aroma brewers.

Widya, who currently runs the store with his wife Maria Luisa
and four employees, said that as an only child he had followed
the closely the workings of his father's business since he was
young. Although he finished an economics degree from Parahyangan
University, one of Bandung's most respected institutions, "I
chose to continue the business."

In the classic style of the truly old-fashioned entrepreneur,
he politely declined to disclose his business turnover.

He said that he has never taken one day off work since he took
over the store almost two decades ago.

"We rest on Sundays and I travel twice a year outside Java to
visit my suppliers," he said. He then excused himself to serve a
customer who had stepped into the store, even though it had
closed half an hour before.