Tobacco
Indonesians began to know tobacco in the 17th century by the Europeans. Today, Indonesia is famous as one of the best quality tobacco producers in the world . There are more than 100 varieties of tobacco grown in Indonesia, on more than 250 thousand hectares of land which majority are located in Sumatera, Java, Bali, and Lombok. There are many factors that affect the flavor and the nicotine content in tobacco leaves, which is the type and height of the land on which the plant is grown, rainfall, weather, and the farmers planting tradition.
Tobacco planting is usually done in April. It took about six months to harvest tobacco. Once harvested, the tobacco leaves then torn by hand and dried under the hot sun for two days. Then, the tobacco leaves are sorted based on quality and sold to the cigarette factories. In the factories, some tobacco are directly for use, but some are kept for years, according to the recipe needed to make a particular brand of kretek.
Clove
Same as tobacco, clove plant is also thrives in Indonesia. Part of the clove plant used is the unbloomed flowers. Although used for various purposes by many peoples of the world - from India to Europe, clove trees previously only grew in the “spice island”, Maluku. That is why cloves are highly rewarded and sought after by many people.
This valuable spice is also indirectly contribute to form the Indonesian state as it is today. The Dutch, English, Spanish, and Portuguese, used to fight to control and dominate the clove trade in Indonesia.
Although now cloves are cultivated in other countries, Indonesia remains the world's largest producer of cloves. It is a blessing, because the kretek industry need a large supply of cloves annually, or about 95% of the global cloves production.
Clove tree takes at least five years to mature and ready for harvest. Clove flowers plucked by hand by workers, then dried in the sun. After that, the cloves is weighed, sold, and chopped by machine before added to the tobacco mix to make kretek.
The Secret Sauce
The last component in the kretek manufacture is the sauce, which is made from various herbs and fruit extracts to create a specific aroma and flavor. In addition to the composition of tobacco and cloves mixture, the sauce is the differential factor among each brand and kretek variants.