Coffee vendor stays true to time-honored traditions

Coffee vendor stays true to time-honored traditions

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

There is not much difference in the way Widyapratama, 50,
sells coffee from how his father did when he first started up his
own business back in the 1930s.

His store, a white art-deco building with a low ceiling,
flanked by electronic goods stores in the bustling Jl. Banceuy in
the heart of downtown of Bandung is just as reserved and low-key
as it looked in the past, when father Tan Houw Sian opened the
coffee store called Aroma.

"The cashier's machine is also from my father's time -- it's
too bad that I can't use it anymore because have different
coins," he said.

"It's still working though," Widya, the father of three
teenage girls, said as he pointed to the the cumbersome-looking
cash register that wouldn't look out of place in an old Western
movie.

He learned how to run the family business from a very early
age as an only child. "I stick to the ancient ways of processing
coffee -- meaning without any chemicals or additional material
like corn and other beans," he said.

His customers, he remarked, were those who can smell good
quality coffees. Among the faxed orders scattered on his desk was
a letter from an embassy in Jakarta ordering several blends of
coffee.

In his traditional method, it takes less than a day to process
coffee grains into a natural flavor, but it takes years to store
the grains in order to let them develop their flavors naturally.

Hundreds of sacks of grain are piled up in the dark and humid
storage area, reaching the wooden ceiling. The grains had been
dried in the sun before being packed.

"The grains must be kept only inside jute sacks, which still
allow air to enter," said Widya, who also works as a university
lecturer in management.

Arabica needs at least eight years to be stored before it can
be processed into a tasty coffee, while Robusta can spend only
three to five years in storage.

The grains were bought every year during harvests from coffee
farmers throughout the country like Lampung, Aceh, and West Java.

"The grains will bring out their best flavor after being
stored for a long time," Widya said.

In the same room, a 1936 German-made roaster machine, fueled
by firewood, could be found near the storage door. Widya said
that heat from the fire enhances the flavor of his coffee.

He added that he did not roast and grind the coffee every day
because it was not a mass production business and "if we run out
of stocks at the store, we roast the coffee."

To grind the roasted coffee grains, another piece of German
machinery was also used, the 66-year-old, Hamburg-made grinder
placed next to Widya's working desk.

Unlike fashionable cafes where such machines end their fate as
atmosphere enhancers, in Widya's store, it was bona fide.

The strong coffee aroma reaches your nostrils even before you
step into the store. At the front part of the store, you will see
several old glass jars filled with black coffee.

"We sell two kinds of coffee, robusta and arabica, but our
customers can ask for a mix of the two," Widya said.

Robusta, which has a smooth and mild taste, sold at Rp 30,000
per kilogram, while the stronger flavored Arabica went for Rp
36,000.

"If one gets really dizzy, it's better to take Arabica, but if
you want to relax and really enjoy the coffee, I recommend
robusta," he said; Widya himself admitted that he consumed seven
cups of coffee a day.

For excellent-tasting coffee, Widya said the formula was
simple: boil water and add the desired amount of coffee. "But it
is really not necessary to boil the coffee and the water
together" at the same time.

With five employees, mostly descendants of those who worked
with his father in the beginning, Widya said that he and his wife
keep their business open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

With no other branches open and no intention to expand his
business into a restaurant or modern cafe, Widya said modestly
that he would maintain the old-fashioned style to the end.

In the future, Widya said he could only expect that one of his
daughters would carry on continuing the family business.