Clove Cigarettes: A uniquely Indonesian product, a blend of tobacco, dried cloves and a special sauce that varies with each of the 1,800 brands on the market.
Clove cigarettes also called kretek, are a mixture of 60% superior tobaccos and 40% clove spice, rolled into a cigarette.
Almost all of clove cigarettes are made in Indonesia, the origin country of clove cigarettes was invented. In Indonesia over 90% of all cigarettes consumed annually are clove cigarettes.
From:
[Kretek: The Culture and Heritage of Indonesia's Clove Cigarettes ] by Mark Hanusz, Equinox Publishing, Jakarta.
Hanusz has uncovered some remarkable details; from the complexity of Indonesia's tobacco industry, to the composition of a special sauce, which can include aniseed, rum and, of all things, extract of strawberries. Most manufacturers keep their sauce recipes secret. Perhaps just as well--although mild on the throat, kretek contains no less nicotine and tar than regular "white" cigarettes.
From: New York Times
KUDUS, Indonesia It was one of those precious moments that seem to prove that life has meaning, a moment of inspiration perhaps divine inspiration that makes all the hard times seem worthwhile.
"All of a sudden, out of the blue, I had it," said Djoko Herryanto, a chemist whose mission it is to find the most delicious mixture of spices to enhance the taste of Indonesia's sweet-smelling clove cigarettes.
"Until this day, I don't know," he said. "Did this idea come from my technical knowledge? Or did it come from `wahyu,' a divine inspiration, a flash?"
Indeed, his new creation does seem beyond the imagining of ordinary men.
"A taste of banana mixed with cheese and sugar sauce together with chocolate, all toasted together," he said, still breathless when he thinks about it. "That's the flavor that came to me Bam! sweet, nutty, caramelic, fruity, everything!"
A blend of flavors like this may seem hard to imagine in a cigarette, but tens of millions of Indonesians are smoking sticks of candy like this every day. The clove cigarette, it turns out, is a great deal more than tobacco and cloves. It is a complex, infinitely variable symphony of scent and flavor.
This is where divine inspiration comes in: cinnamon, pineapple, licorice, coriander, litchi nut, coffee, strawberry whatever delights the senses, sometimes in natural flavorings but usually (and more economically) in artificial flavors.
