KRETEK CIGARETTES
Contents and pictures partially are taken from the copyrighted kretek book by Mark Hanusz, original author of the Kretek book.
KRETEK (clove cigarette)
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?
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'.
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 KINGS OF KRETEK
SAMPOERNA 1913
In nearly 1912 young Seeng Tee began blending and rolling cigarettes
for a small kretek manufacture located outiside of Surabaya, Indonesia.
He soon developed such a love for the job that he decided to set up his
own business selling tobacco and condiments.
Previously, Seeng Tee had sold his tobacco without any additives but he
offered a variety of natural flavorings - chocolate, vanilla, nutmeg or
clove - to go with it. Over time, Seeng Tee came to notice that certain
flavors and combinations of ingredients were more popular than others
and so he came up with the idea of making pre-rolled cigarettes with a
blend of tobaccos and condiments that reflected the preferences of his
customers. These he sold as a packaged product which became an
instantaneous hit and gave birth to the mother of all kretek, Dji Sam
Soe.
By 1934, the Sampoerna kretek factory was up and running and this time
there was plenty of room for every stage in the manufacturing process
with spaces set aside for tobacco blending, clove processing and
handrolling, as well as printing and finished-goods processing.
After three generations, today, Sampoerna is best known for its
handrolled Dji Sam Soe and their successful 'A' range of machine-made
kretek. A-Mild - launhed in 1989 - was the first low-tar and
low-nicotine kretek of its kind in the world. In their sprawling
complex in Pandaan, south of Surabaya, they have some of the fastest
Hauni rolling machines in the business and one of the most advanced
research and development facilities in the world. Despite the current
management's love of technology, what is most amazing is that Sampoerna
is still able to keep Liem Seeng Tee's original handrolled masterpiece
firmly in the top-tier of all kretek on the market.
BENTOEL 1931
As a young man growing up in Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia, Ong Hok
Liong first entered the kretek business as an assistant in his father's
tobacco trading company. Although he was quite good at buying and
selling tobacco, he had an unfortunate tendency to gamble the profits
away.
With the funding in place, Ong was able to rent a house on Jalan
Pecinan Kecil, which functioned as warehouse, office and factory. In
order to ensure that it did not meet the same fate as that of his other
failed brands, he made a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain Gunung Kawi
to pay his respects to the holy tomb of sixteenth-century ascetic named
Mbah Djugo. Many Javanese make offerings and even spend the night at
the tomb of Mbah Djugo in hope that it will bring them wealth and good
fortune.
One night on Gunung Kawi, Ong had a dream in which he met a bentoel
vendor (bentoel is the root of the cassava plant). The next morning,
Ong asked one of the grave guardians what he thought the dream might
mean. The latter replied the dream was a sign to use 'Bentoel'. He
introduced a novel system of distribution by employing salesman to go
around by bicycle or on foot, selling Bentoel from door to door.
In 1950, with a work force, Ong Hok Liong took over a cigarette factory
in Blitar complete with six hundred workers. With this added capacity,
Ong decided to mechanize part of the production process and bought
machinese to grind cloves as well as to blend tobacco. Other innovative
measures followed - in the mid-1960s, Bentoel introduced benches for
their rollers to sit on while rolling their kretek.
In 1968, Bentoel again broke new ground when the company purchased the
first fully-automated rolling machinese in the Indonesian kretek
industry.
One of the consequences of Bentoel's success in the late 1970s was that
it attracted the attention of investors, from both Indonesian and
abroad, who were only too eager to provide financial assistance to one
of corporate Indonesia's brightest prospects.
DJARUM 1951
It is fitting that one of Indonesia's best known kretek companies, both
at home and overseas, has its entire manufacturing and packaging line
located in Kudus, Indonesia, the birth of kretek. While all the other
larger kretek companies are either wholly or partially owned by direct
descendants of the original founding family, the present owners of
Djarum have no connection whatsoever with the people who first
established the business.
The company was originally called Djarum Gramophon, (lit. 'gramophone
needle'), but when the firm was acquired in 1951 by Oei Wie Gwan, the
father of the present owners, he shortened the name to just Djarum.
Wie Gwan started out with seventy employees and from the beginning he
kept a firm grip on all aspects of kretek production, personally
blending the tobacco, cloves and sauce mixture himself, to ensure that
the quality of his kretek was maintained. The company's first brands
were Djarum and Kotak Adjaib and originally they were only sold in the
Kudus area.
Realizing the need for professional management, Wie Gwan's sons, Budi
and Bambang hired the best that the market could offer and in 1970,
they established a research and development department to come up with
new and innovative tobacco products. Budi and Bambang also saw that
while Indonesia might provide a huge market for their kretek, the
potential for export was even bigger. In 1972, they began exporting
handrolled kretek to tobacco retailers around the world, from Japan to
the Netherlands and the best-known brands of kretek outside Indonesia,
with the famous gramophone needle logo a familiar sight in tobacconists
far and wide.
Come the mid-1970s, Budi and Bambang were quick to realize that if they
wanted to stay competitive, they would have to follow Bentoel's lead
and mechanize. The first of their machine-made kretek, Djarum Filter,
was launched in 1976, followed in 1981 by Djarum Super, which for a
time, was Indonesia's best-selling filter kretek.
By far their most innovativer product, however, was the Djarum Kretek
Cigarillo - the world's first cigarillo spiced with cloves. In 1984,
the company sent two of its employees to the Oud Kampen Cigarillo
factory in the Netherlands in order to learn the intricacies of making
cigarillos. It took some time to perfect the art of blending cigar
tobaccos with cloves but Djarum finally got the formula right and
introduced a completely new kretek experience to the smoking public.
GUDANG GARAM 1958
Gudang Garam (lit. 'salt warehouse') was founded on 26 June 1958 and it
is salutary to reflect that one of most successful tobacco companies in
Indonesia today should have been started less than fifty years ago and
by a man of such humble origins as Tjoa Ing Hwie.
In his late twenties, Ing Hwie got his big break when his uncle offered
him a job working with tobacco and sauce at his kretek factory Cap 93.
Cap 93 was one of the most famous kretek brands in East Java. Hard work
and diligence was soon rewarded by promotion to Head of Tobacco and
Sauce and eventually led to Ing Hwie becoming a company director.
Ing Hwie left Cap 93 in 1956 taking fifty employees with him. He
immediately started buying land and raw materials in Kediri and soon
after began producing his own klobot kretek which he marketed under the
brand name Inghwie. Two years later Ing Hwie re-named and registered
his company as Pabrik Rokok Tjap Gudang Garam and a legend was born.
The story behind the name 'Gudang Garam' deserves a special mention.
One night, Ing Hwie had a dream in which the old salt warehouse which
stood across the way from Cap 93 featured prominently. Subsequently,
Sarman, one of the original fifty employees who had followed Ing Hwie
when he left Cap 93, advice Ing Hwie to put a picture of the warehouse
on every packet of his kretek to secure good fortune. Ing Hwie thought
this was a good idea and asked Sarman to design the logo.
Gudang Garam grow rapidly and by the end of 1958 it had five hundred employees producing over fifty million kretek annualy.
By 1966, after only eight years in production, Gudang Garam had grown
to be the largest kretek factory in Indonesia with an annual production
of 472 million sticks.
By 1969, Gudang Garam was producing 864 million sticks a year and was indisputably the largest kretek producer in Indonesia.
In 1979 Ing Hwie completely renovated Gudang Garam's production system,
ordered thrity rolling machines and developed a new formula for his
machine-made kretek.
Despite being a relative latecomer to the game of kretek, Gudang Garam
was now clearly the largest producer of kretek in Indonesia and one of
the top ten largest cigarette manufacturers in the world.
THE CULTURE OF KRETEK
Kretek, however, is more than simply an exotic cigarette and an
economic phenomenon, it is an integral part of Indonesia's cultural
traditions. Its distinctive fragrance embodies the very essence of
Indonesia while evoking a sense of place like few other cultural
signifiers, hence its frequent appearance in Indonesian art and
literature. Moreover, kretek is the great equalizer of Indonesian
society in that it is one of the few commercial products which is
consumed at every level in the social hierarchy, from the most senior
executive in the corporate world down to the most humble becak driver
on the streets.
One of the easiest ways to make friends around Indonesia is simply to
offer a kretek. This is the starting point for many conversations -
both giver and receiver are automatically drawn together through their
shared enjoyment of the same product. In this respect, kretek can be
seen as a social ice-breaker in that it fosters an immediate
camaraderie between people. Even if the recipient doesn't smoke, he
will surely appreciate the gesture and hold onto the kretek to give to
a family member or a friend who does.
BUY KRETEK BOOK
The story of kretek is more than just a tale of tobacco and spices: it
is the history of a cultural tradition. It is time that this story is
properly told.
Chapter one looks at the origins of kretek as a product and an industry.
The second chapter examines the ingredients that constitute kretek,
tracing the origins of the spice trade and cloves and the introduction
of tobacco to the archipelago and the mysterious sauce that makes
kretek so distinctive. It also describes the manufacture of kretek -
both traditional and modern.
The third chapter takes a closer look at some of the companies which have made kretek what it is today.
Finally, chapter four explores the cultural significance of kretek both in the past and in contemporary Indonesian society.
Contents and pictures partially are taken from the copyrighted kretek book by Mark Hanusz, original author of the Kretek book.
