Stay healthy with traditional 'jahe pletok'

Singgir Kartana, Contributor, Magelang, Central Java

In the competitive food and beverage business there is a well- known adage that the ingredients might be similar but the taste should be different, depending on how you brew and serve them.

The same saying goes for 40-year-old Wahyudi, a jahe pletok or instant ginger drink vendor from Magelang regency, Central Java.

The beverage's unique name was coined by Wahyudi himself to distinguish his product from others and to bring good luck to his business.

Jahe means ginger, but pletok is hardly found in any Indonesian dictionary. Javanese people are familiar with the word as it is often associated with a loud popping sound.

"The brand, Jahe Pletok, arouses people's curiosity so that they wish to try the product," said Yudi, as he is fondly called.

Though similar ginger powders with the same ingredients and positive health effect are available, people still prefer to buy Yudi's.

The main ingredients for the beverage are ginger, sugar, brown sugar, kayu secang or sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan) and Indonesian cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmannii). To serve it, all the ingredients are mixed together with hot or cold water and, depending on one's taste, ice cubes can be added to the beverage.

The drink is believed to be good for one's health. Sappanwood, for example, contains substances like saffron and tannin and phenil prophil acetat, which are believed to help relieve breathing difficulties, increase appetite, help the digestion process and prevent flatulence.

The sweet, exotic aroma of cinnamon brings a novel sensation to the drinker and is also believed to prevent someone from catching a cold.

However, Bambang Sulistiyo, a traditional medicine expert, said that such a drink should be categorized as a herbal drink or tonic, not a drug.

"The function is to improve stamina -- to prevent a disease but not cure it," he said.

Yudi started his business in 1995, and was inspired by bir pletok, a local beverage that also used ginger in its ingredients, after a visit to Jakarta.

Upon his return to his hometown in Magelang, he tried to concoct his own beverage using ginger and produced jahe pletok, which is totally different in its ingredients and production method to Jakarta's bir pletok. In 1996, the Ministry of Health recognized his product and licensed it.

In the beginning, Wahyudi sold his jahe pletok from door to door in Magelang and its environs.

As his product became more popular, Yudi did not have to travel again. For two years now, customers have gone to his residence in Candirejo village, Magelang, to buy the beverage, either for personal consumption or for resale.

Jahe pletok is packaged in a small box containing 250 grams of powder, costing Rp 5,000 (60 US cents).

Yudi can sell about 1,000 boxes per month. The beverage is now available in many parts of Java, such as Semarang, Yogyakarta (Central Java), Bandung (West Java) and Surabaya (East Java).

He said that the manufacture of jahe pletok was not as complicated as one might think. First, pieces of ginger are washed clean and grated. Some water is poured into the mix and then one must wait until the residue of the ginger develops. It is then strained to obtain the essence .

The essence is then mixed with sugar, brown sugar and certain spices, and boiled.

Yudi said that one must keep stirring the mixture for up to an hour to prevent it from becoming lumpy.

A similar method is used when he makes other traditional tonics such as kunir asem, kunir putih, temulawak and gula asem.

The whole process is handled by Wahyudi himself. Sometimes, his mother, Ibu Parinten, lends a hand.

In order to maintain the special flavor, Yudi carefully measures the ingredients. The ratio of ginger and sugar is 1:3, meaning that for one kilogram (kg) of ginger, he needs two kg of sugar and one kg of brown sugar. In addition, he needs an ounce of a mixture of sappanwood and cinnamon.

Since Candirejo people plant spices in their own gardens, Yudi often asks his neighbors for some, like ginger, and grows others in his own backyard.

"We have abundant materials here," he remarked.