Page 89 - #64 eng 电子版

It became a callback immortalized and

enshrined in gilded memories that could
perhaps never be lived-up-to again.

became a fable, a callback, a reference point immor- Javanese coffee trees, transhipped through India
talized and enshrined in gilded memories that could from Yemen, became the sole source of the dispersion
perhaps never be lived-up-to again. of coffee across the world for the next century and a
A glimmer of hope remains, however. The ECX half. Eventually known as the Typica variety of Arabica,
has evolved over the past decade to better suit markets trees from Java made their way back to botanical gardens
and consumer demands. Whispers of an old friend, in Europe, notably in Amsterdam and Paris, and there-
retracing the steps of a previous generation but with after populated all of the Americas. Even Arabica’s
the tools of the modern world and the flexibility of other major heirloom cultivar, Bourbon, was first
the newest direct trade allowances, may yet bring plucked from the Javanese Typica plant in the Dutch
coffee from Harar back to the tongues of those who botanical garden as a gift to the French royal court.
still remember its former glory. But coffee in Indonesia would undergo its own
special trajectory. The Dutch colonizers, having found
Indonesia - Seeds that Spread to the West sufficient land to occupy, went about planting coffee
throughout the Indonesian islands, and as early as 1725
7
There is perhaps no coffee more dissimilar to began enforcing their ideas of agriculture (which
Harar, yet equally memorable, as giling basah (wet generally meant replacing subsistence staples like rice
hulled coffee) from Indonesia. History, too, has with cash crops such as coffee, sugar, and silk). Formal-
taken a different turn to bring coffee to islands in ly, the cultuurstelsel Cultivation system didn’t actually
the Pacific ocean, yet the root is deep and singular, begin until about 1830, but with Dutch coffee demand
and returns us to the port of Mocha in Yemen.Cof- leading the charge in Europe, it’s no secret that the is-
fee loves intersections: art and science, craft and lands of Java, Sumatra, and Celebes (Sulawesi) were
commodity, stimulant and specialty. Coffee’s first wrested from the independent control of their inhabi-
intersection of Ethiopia (culture) and Yemen (cul- tants and converted into government-run plantations.
tivation) would meet its match in the form of Eu- Even privately held small plots were required to produce
ropean merchants (colonization). cash crops to turn over to the Dutch.
Part and parcel to Yemen’s early dominance in The legacy of colonial control reaches far beyond
coffee trade was its ban on the export of viable seeds. the crops that continue to grow in Indonesia, but
Ultimately, their monopoly was outfoxed by the marks on the coffee industry remain indelible. While
Dutch, purportedly when merchant Pieter van den Javanese coffee production continues to largely cen-
Broecke visited the port of Mocha in 1616, uprooted ter on former government estates, on neighboring
a whole tree, and smuggled it to the botanical garden Sumatra it is the smallholder who produces the bulk
6
in Amsterdam . Thereafter the Dutch planted coffee of the island’s coffee. Old and unshakable systems of
on the western coast of India and Sri Lanka in the middlemen and an inherent need to quickly harvest
waning hours of the 17th century. and reap profit has resulted in the adaptation of wet
In 1699, coffee found its way from India’s Malabar hulling. Giling basah, as it is called locally, is as prag-
coast to Batavia (now Jakarta), on the island of Java in matic an exchange as exists in the coffee growing
the Dutch East Indies, what is now Indonesia. Despite world, one that minimizes labor and time at the front
its stopover in India (and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka), Java end of the supply chain - a holdover from colonial
would be the world’s next region to lend its name to the occupation and an important consideration when labor
bean. The world would never be the same. and time aren’t being compensated. After harvesting

89