Kretek, the clove-infused cigarette of Indonesia, was created in the town of Kudus, Central Java, in the late nineteenth century. What was once a small-scale cottage industry has grown over the course of more than 100 years to become one of the largest contributors to the Indonesian economy, second only to oil and gas.
The history of the clove, the key ingredient in kretek, is interwoven with the history of Indonesia itself. Cloves were once highly prized for their medicinal properties. Even in Roman times, cloves demanded high prices. It is little wonder then that many a merchant became rich through the buying and selling of cloves. The highly sought—after spice originally grew only on five tiny islands east of Sulawesi and west of Papua. In order to control the buying and selling of the spice from its source, the Dutch and English East India companies were formed at the beginning of the 17th century. Thus began an era of colonization and foreign intervention in Asia.
It was not until the 19th century that people began adding cloves to their kretek. The trend caught on quickly, and within a few years kretek were being produced on a commercial scale and the beginnings of a new industry were been born.
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