A Sip of the Story of Toraja Coffee

JABIER Amin is always happy and excited whenever his eyes feast on the lush plantation while inspecting the trees, examining the fruits, and supervising the pickers and the process of sorting the coffee beans. In his old age, he begins to ask himself about the charm of coffee which always makes time go unnoticed.

He is an alumnus of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) and works at PT Toarco Jaya, a subsidiary of Key Coffee from Japan. The company was established in 1976 in Toraja. Jabier truly loves his job as a coffee plant expert on top of the Padamaran mountain, North Toraja Regency. There isn't the slightest inkling in his heart to look for another job. To Jabier, a coffee plantation is like a lucrative practice field.

“I am in direct contact with the soil and I can put the theories I learned on campus into practice,” he said. “Is there any other happiness than when I have a job related to my major and desire? I don't think so.”

Jabier was in his office in Rantepao when I met him. He had just returned from accompanying some Japanese people on a tour of the farm. There was no sign of fatigue on his face; in fact, he was eager to tell me his stories.

Jabier Amin is a great conversationalist. It doesn't take long for someone who talks with him to fall in love with coffee. “Try sniffing it first, then taste it. How does it taste?” he asked. “It's sour, a little bitter, but it doesn't make my throat scratchy,” I replied. “Now, mix in some sugar and see how the flavor changes,” he continued.

I politely declined, because for me a good coffee doesn't require sugar. “Is this Arabica?” I asked. “Yes, it's Arabica. We're not talking about Robusta here. You know, the Japanese and some coffee connoisseurs (not drinkers) in any country, they don't use sugar in their coffee because it can ruin the flavor. And this is what makes Toraja coffee famous,” said Jabier Amin.

I was stunned for a moment. That's exactly the reason I visited Toraja: to see first-hand what coffee looks like and why it's been the talk of Nusantara people for centuries. “Uncle, you know (I address Jabier Amin as uncle), coffee shops are mushrooming like crazy in Makassar. And every coffee shop says their coffee comes from Toraja,” I said.

Jabier Amin smiled, but I wasn't sure whether it was a cynical or a happy one. His expression was hard to read.

In Makassar, the coffee shop boom happened in 2005. Most business owners used shophouses or small houses for their shops. The look and design were simple, with tables set up face-to-face with plastic chairs. The cafes were almost always filled with customers of all ages and occupations. However, no one can count the exact number of coffee shops (usually called warkop in Indonesian) that have sprung up in Makassar. People can only estimate that it's in the hundreds, even possibly approaching a thousand.

Of the dozens of warkop I visited, the owners always had a similar answer about their coffee coming from Toraja. Ironically, I couldn't find a single one of them who could explain why Toraja coffee is so popular.

In June 2014, I visited Toraja, about an eight-hour bus ride from Makassar. Toraja is a beautiful place that is surrounded by towering mountains. The regency is filled with stilt houses adorned with boat-like roofs.

I had to passed twisting roads to go through the village streets that are made of cobblestones and sticky red dirt. I wanted to witness the community's famous coffee plantations with my own eyes. I was a little disappointed, though, after finding that coffee plants in Toraja are not sprawling, but rather tucked in the front or backyard among other plants. Sometimes, they are even used as garden borders.

Since the 16th century, historians have agreed that Toraja was the first region to grow coffee in South Sulawesi, but the coffee was introduced by people from the Kingdom of Gowa. One of the references that corroborates this is Lontaraq Bilang, the daily record of the Kingdom of Gowa. The record describes how the people of Gowa sailed with coffee to Toraja. “The Gowa people sailed to the port of Suppa (now Parepare), then walked through the Enrekang mountains to Toraja,” said Hasanuddin University historian Edwar Poelinggomang.

The coffee plant, said Edwar, was first brought by Arab merchants who came to Makassar. It was introduced as a drink of strength and vitality which can make people alert and even sleepless. Words quickly spread about coffee's benefits. However, breeding the plant would require high altitudes and cold temperatures, and Toraja met those criteria.

Back then, Gowa and Toraja had a harmonious relationship. In the inauguration of Gowa kings, aside from wearing regalia and a badik (small dagger), a king must have a Sudanga' machete, a relic of Lakipadada, a person considered as To Manurung (the first man) from Toraja. “I think the formation of government in the Kingdom of Gowa in the early days had something to do with Toraja. They were even very close, like a distant family relationship,” said Edwar.

In the 18th century, coffee became a very important commodity for the people of South Sulawesi. It was consumed by all groups regardless of social class. Coffee also became a strength-enhancing drink for royal troops. “In South Sulawesi, according to royal records, coffee is grown and consumed for the community and trade, not as a drink for the noble class,” said Edwar.

Towards the 19th century, coffee reached its peak. Dias Paradadimara, a Hasanuddin University historian who has researched the coffee trade in South Sulawesi, said that the “black pearl” was the main savior of Indonesian trade throughout the 19th century, long before sugar plantations were developed by the Dutch East Indies government. “The biggest suppliers of coffee at that time were Java, parts of Sumatra, and Sulawesi,” Dias said.

In South Sulawesi, according to Dias, the increasing trend of coffee incited trade competition between coffee in the Southern region such as Wajo, Sidenreng, Camba, and parts of Sinjai, and Toraja and Enrekang in the Northern region.

The Sidenreng Kingdom, which had the Bungin port, marketed coffee under the name Kopi Bungin. Meanwhile, another competitor, the Kingdom of Bone together with Arab traders, tried to seize the coffee market through the port of Palopo.

Geographically, Toraja as the main and best coffee producer is very close to Palopo (Luwu Kingdom), but they chose to bring coffee to the Bungin port. According to Edwar, by the 19th century the Kingdom of Luwu was no longer acknowledged in the trade scene due to its less strategic location on Bone Bay.

Therefore, competition to control the coffee trade led the Kingdom of Luwu to collaborate with the Kingdom of Bone to launch an attack on Toraja. This coffee war became known as the Songko Barong invasion.

However, Toraja along with the Sangalla Kingdom which became the main area of coffee plantations, provided resistance to Bone and Luwu. This disobedience was further shown by continuing to sell coffee through the Sidenreng and Wajo Kingdoms. “At that time, coffee was grown as a barter tool for weaponry. It wasn't for consumption because the tradition of drinking coffee emerged in the later era,” said Dias.

Sidenreng and Wajo in the early 19th century were potential markets for the free trade in weapons. This influence arose when Penang Island opened as a free port in 1776 and the British opened Singapore in the late 18th century. Because of this influence, Sidenreng had direct access to the market through the Bungin port.

“At that time Makassar was a very important and powerful port. All coffee plants from eastern Indonesia, and some from Sinjai and Gowa, were shipped to Batavia and then to Singapore. But, I think coffee that was sent through the Bungin port didn’t go through Makassar,” said Dias.

The Decline of the Coffee Market

In 1882, the international supply of coffee suddenly diminished. Coffee prices fell to their lowest point due to a disease which spread through Sri Lanka. All coffee plants in the lowlands died, including in all coffee plantations in the Southern region of South Sulawesi. “The coffee that survived were those in the high altitude areas, including Toraja and Enrekang,” said Dias.

“I think from that point, some farmers started replacing coffee plants with cloves and other more promising commodities,” Dias continued.

In South Sulawesi, coffee plants grew on the initiative of the people themselves. Meanwhile in Java, the majority of commodities were planted through government systems and programs, or better known as the forced planting system.

Seeing the decline of the coffee commodity, the Dutch government introduced a new variant of coffee called Robusta. This type of coffee is resistant to pests and diseases, and is able to grow well in both low and highland areas. This coffee plant quickly spread again in Indonesia, including South Sulawesi.

Robusta then became the main basis for making coffee on a large scale for supermarkets. There were various blends which corresponded to the flavors of each region, such as Americano, Italiano, and several others. However, the low price of Robusta coffee caused several coffee plantations in South Sulawesi to be abandoned.

The high supply of Robusta at that time, said Edwar, made the Dutch government carry out commodity politics by stating that Arabica coffee was an inferior plant or low-grade coffee, compared to the 'superior' Robusta coffee.

However, the Kingdom of Gowa, which already had trade relations with Singapore as a British-occupied territory, was able to secretly sell Arabica coffee from Toraja and Enrekang directly as a superior grade. “The Dutch have a tendency to buy at a low price and sell at a high price. So they said Arabica was low in quality,” said Edwar.

The nobles in the Kingdom of Bone, having failed to control the Toraja coffee market, asked the locals to plant coffee that would be bought by the kingdom as the main buyer, but at a very low price of 27 guilders per 17 kg. Finally, around 1847, the coffee plantations in South Sulawesi were completely abandoned.

The second period of coffee decline occurred when Indonesia, especially Batavia (now Jakarta), was struck by the outbreak of pestilence which was associated with the habit of drinking coffee. In fact, in a study, it was found that some Chinese people who consumed tea were not infected with pestilence. “For this reason, tea became a superior commodity, beating coffee and spices. The British even gave it all to seize the tea market and made an opium war,” said Edwar.

As a result, tea that had been under Britain's control through several of its colonies, led to the American revolution by throwing away boxes of British tea. “Since then, America declared that it refused to drink tea and drink coffee instead,” said Dias.

In the decade of 1880-1990, changes in demand for commodities made coffee's position even more difficult. Coffee, which was only consumed by certain people, became increasingly rare. In South Sulawesi, people switched to making natural lubricants (oil) and cultivating coconuts as the main ingredient for making copra.

When Nusantara people were involved in wars to gain independence until the post-war 1940s, coffee plantations were almost never talked about again. Ironically, when Java had begun to nationalize some of the coffee plantations left by the Dutch, there were no special plantations in South Sulawesi. In fact, the war was still continuing there.

Kahar Muzakkar's rebellion (1950-1965), better known as Darul Islam/Islamic Armed Forces of Indonesia (DI/TII) which was affiliated with S.M. Kartosoewirjo in West Java, caused prolonged havoc in South Sulawesi. People in rural and urban areas couldn't stay in touch. An imaginary line was drawn between DI/TII territory and the Indonesian National Army (TNI).

Mahade Tosalili, who experienced first-hand the struggle during the DI/TII period, told me that planting for one's own needs was very difficult, let alone visiting plantations in mountainous areas. “We could be killed if caught,” he said.

Prof. Halide, an economics professor from Hasanuddin University who studied 19th-century trade in Makassar, agreed. “Two of the coffee producers were Enrekang and Toraja. During the DI/TII rebellion, Enrekang and Palopo became the main bases flanking the Toraja, so the Torajans' trade access was obviously cut off,” he said.

Coffee Revival

In 1950, demand for South Sulawesi coffee for export from various parts of the world increased. However, this demand couldn't be fulfilled because trade access between regions was cut off due to the DI/TII rebellion. Toraja as the main coffee-producing region had no access to the market.

The big roads, which were the main bases for DI/TII troops especially in Enrekang and Palopo, became frightening routes. because there were always blockades and seizures. Several bridges connecting the main routes between regions were even destroyed. C. van Dijk in Darul Islam: Sebuah Pemberontakan (Darul Islam: A Rebellion), wrote that in the 1950s there were some areas that even suffered from food shortages. By the end of 1963 there were reported food shortages throughout South Sulawesi.

After the end of the DI/TII rebellion in South Sulawesi in 1965, Prof. Halide was appointed by the government as head of the Department of Domestic and Foreign Trade for Makassar. His job was to oversee and provide services for commodities with export value. “The plantations and the fear of people going to the plantations gradually improved. Farmers started working again, especially rice farmers and of course coffee farmers,” he said.

“I remember those days, Makassar exported coffee on demand. The destination was Europe and America. South Sulawesi sent at least 10 tons,” he said.

At that time, the quality and standard of coffee for export was controlled in Makassar with a manual sorting process. Damaged coffee beans were set aside for domestic trade, while healthy beans were exported. “At that time, the export trademark for coffee from South Sulawesi was Kopi Kalosi,” Halide said.

Kalosi is the name of an area in the mountainous region of Enrekang Regency. At the time, Kalosi was considered the main producer of coffee compared to Toraja. However, the contradiction wasn't based on strong reference. “I think, at that time, it was the Kalosi people who initially were skillful traders. This is where the name Kopi Kalosi came from,” said Litha Brent, a coffee entrepreneur and exporter since 1970.

Long before that, Japanese people recognized the quality of Toraja coffee in 1932. Because of that, in early 1970, Key Coffee through PT Toarco Jaya brought researchers to visit Toraja, and bingo! - they found coffee in people's plantations. “In the first year, we collected coffee from Toraja and Enrekang. We thought that the taste and character of coffee in these two regions were similar,” said Jabier.

Toarco obtained 530 ha of land with the Right of Exploitation (HGU) from the Indonesian government. In 1976, Toarco started planting coffee and provided the community with education and proper coffee management. In 1977, Toarco registered Toraja Arabica Coffee as an international trademark. The first export, green bean to Japan, was made in 1979.

Since then, the demand for coffee continued to increase. Every year Toarco needed at least 600 tons. In 1991, Toarco even sent 1,300 tons of green bean.

The development and market for Arabica coffee were very expensive as supply was scarce. With few customers but targeting the elite class, Toraja coffee gained its own market share.

Dias said, since the 19th century, coffee from South Sulawesi, especially Toraja, has always had the highest price, thanks to Sulawesi's geologically old soil structure that gives its coffee its own specialty. “It makes coffee that lives on old soil formations has more complex flavor,” he said.

However, Jabier Amin said that the high production cost for Toraja coffee caused it to be expensive. The comparison for one hectare of coffee production in Sumatra and Java reaches up to 700 kg, while in Toraja the maximum is only 250 kg.

Not only that, it takes up to 12 times to pick coffee cherries from each coffee tree in Toraja, compared to Java that takes only six picking times. Toraja also receives an endless supply of rain that reaches 3,500 millimeters per year. The rainfall even reached 5,000 millimeters in 2010 which resulted in no coffee exports in 2011.

In the 1990s, American coffee maker Starbucks created a new trend in enjoying coffee which is called specialty coffee. Coffee flavors don't rely solely on the blend but include the flavors of the region of origin. “Now people are no longer looking for Arabica or Robusta coffee but rather for Gayo, Toraja, Mandailing, Papua, or Brazilian coffee,” he said. “I think Toraja is enjoying this coffee boom, because its coffee is distinctive.”

Now, coffee fields that have existed since the past are starting to flourish again. In Toraja, there are at least nine traditional coffee trading points. Farmers with limited knowledge still harvest coffee traditionally, peeling the coffee cherry skin with simple tools, and drying the coffee by relying on natural conditions.

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