“I’d like a cup of Java.”
When we, Indonesians, hear such expression coming from a foreigner in a coffee shop, some of us would certainly raise an eyebrow.
Well, what the tourist is actually trying to say is, “I’d like a cup of Arabica coffee.”
What has a cup of coffee got to do with our island?
Ah, most of us don’t fully know that far back in the past, some time in the 18th – 19th century, during the Dutch colonization, Indonesia was well-known as the world’s most prominent coffee exporter.
The Dutch government set up coffee plantations in our island of Java, and in those days they performed an exhibition in USA to introduce the Java-grown Arabica coffee beans to the Americans. The introduction was warmly welcome and gained positive response. The Americans loved the drink and named it according to the place where it was grown. That was how the drink was later on known worldwide as “Java”.
Unfortunately, a wide-spread plant disease destroyed the coffee plantations in Java, some time after its rise to popularity. Eventually, importers shifted to Brazil in search of coffee beans, and up to this day Brazil has replaced Indonesia as the world’s icon in coffee business. But the name “Java” remains, even when its origin has been forgotten, even when we never realize what significance it held in the past, even when one of the prides of our nation has been robbed from our hands.
Ironic, isn’t it?
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