Has Drinking Coffee Become a Norm in Indonesia?
- Getting Comffee
- May 4, 2020
- 2 min read
Indonesian people were never Big Coffee drinkers historically speaking. But that’s changed quite some time ago. Coffee shops are easily found on the streets and in malls. Coffee shops are the place for friends to hang out at, it’s the place where families gather to spend endless hours with. Coffee shops have never been more closely incorporated in the lives of 10 million citizens residing in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. But it’s not just the metropolitan that displays such changes in the lifestyle. Bali, Bandung, Yokyakarta, name any Indonesian city that you know, and you will find coffee shops and their own unique coffee culture, and coffee drinks in that city.
Why are we seeing such phenomenon in Indonesia, the country where coffee culture was almost non-existent until the 1950s? In order to truly understand where this coffee culture originated from, we have to take a look at the history of Indonesian coffee. The first time Indonesia was introduced to coffee beans is in 1699 when the Dutch Colony brought Arabica coffee plants and planted them in Jakarta. It was done so, as Indonesia has the optimal climate for coffee plants and the Dutch colony was hoping that they could break Arab monopoly in coffee trade. Soon coffee had become cash crops and attracted many smallholders to participate. Coffee was seen as a product, opportunity than a drink for consumption. Making matters worse, in 1876, coffee rust disease hit the entire nation, wiping out a huge sum of the population.
However, Indonesian people’s perception about coffee changed through globalization. The increasing number of Indonesian immigrants in the U.S. and Australia were the pioneers in the creation of the coffee culture of Indonesia. After years of residing in other countries, Indonesian citizens decided that they could open their own coffee shops in Indonesia to educate Indonesian people about the coffee cultures from other countries. However, soon, it developed into something that was grander than it was once imagined to be initially. Indonesian people started viewing coffee shops as a “third place” where they could stay comfortably with their friends and family. To suit the needs of the customers, Indonesian coffee shops have offered a variety of services such as free WiFi, since then. What do you think? Do you think drinking coffee has become a norm in Indonesia?
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