The Spirit of Sumatra Coffee Beans: What Does Courage Mean in Sumatra Coffee

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Sumatra Coffee

On February 14, 1942, the Japanese military deployed 320 aircraft for an airborne assault on Palembang, the oil field region of Sumatra. Less than a month later, the Dutch governor surrendered. On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, Japanese forces occupied Indonesia. From the time Japanese forces occupied Sumatra until the emperor announced surrender in 1945, they encountered virtually no large-scale attacks and lived quite comfortably.

One day, a Japanese soldier was drinking coffee at a café in Sumatra and found it quite good. He asked the owner: "What is this?" The owner thought he was being asked: "Where are you from?" and replied: "Mandailing." This is actually a common human phenomenon - people always assume others are most interested in themselves first, so they habitually express themselves. Perhaps for this reason, he naturally believed he was more noteworthy than the coffee.

Indonesia consists of 17,508 large and small islands with over 300 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its relatively independent characteristics, so every group has its own identity. Sumatra was successively colonized by the British and Dutch, so the owner had no particularly strong reaction to the arrival of Japanese forces. However, this coffee left a deep impression on the Japanese soldier.

After the war, the Japanese soldier returned to Japan alive. Recalling the coffee he drank in Sumatra, he vaguely remembered the name seemed to be "Mandheling." So he called a man from Medan named Pwani, asking him to purchase a batch of "Mandheling coffee" on his behalf. The question arose: what exactly was this "Mandheling coffee" that had been passed down through miscommunication?

Mr. Pwani likely began a quick analysis in his mind:

The earliest coffee beans in Indonesia were in 1696, when the Dutch governor in Malabar, India, sent a batch of coffee seedlings to the Dutch governor in Batavia (now Jakarta). This was the first time coffee was planted in Indonesia.

However, the first batch of coffee seedlings was destroyed by floods.

In 1699, Batavia received another gift. This time, the coffee seedlings survived successfully and yielded their first harvest in 1701, beginning Indonesia's coffee journey. At that time in Europe, coffee had already become very popular in upper-class society. In 1711, Indonesian coffee began supplying the European market. At that time, Indonesia was the first country outside Africa and Arabia to grow coffee on a large scale.

The Dutch were the "sea coaches," hoping to transport coffee beans to Europe quickly. Therefore, in 1718, the Dutch transplanted coffee from Java Island to the Mandailing highlands on the western side of Sumatra Island. Because it was close to the Indian Ocean, it could save several days of sailing time when returning to Holland. Previously, coffee farmers here called the coffee produced Java Mandailing coffee.

Perhaps this is the explanation for the spirit and courage of Sumatra coffee!

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