Month: September 2011

Despite the success of his family’s coffee business, Wirawan Tjahjadi hasn’t stopped to relax, but works hard developing not only his business, but also the local coffee industry.

Wirawan’s father handed him the reins of the Putra Bhineka Perkasa Company in Denpasar in 1993.

“Basically I have to be able to promote the business, both in terms of product taste and distribution. It’s true that this isn’t easy,” said Wirawan, generally called Wewe.

He took his responsibility seriously, setting out to learn everything about coffee, from the ecosystems in which it grows, to planting and harvesting, through to the final processing.

“I learned from zero, starting with the basics about coffee, up to the right way to pour boiling water on the powder. My father said that if I couldn’t distinguish the tastes of coffees and serve them, then how could I sell the product?” said Wewe, who deepened his marketing knowledge by studying at a US university.

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If you look into the past, you will find that the Muslim world  not only brought Greek philosophy to the Western world, it also brought coffee.

Perhaps the most exotic of all beverages, coffee was used in religious ceremonies in ancient Africa before it was later banned by a Christian church that regarded it as “a Muslim drink”.

Coffee was also banned by the Ottoman empire in the 17th century, as it was associated with defiant political activities in Europe.

The word “coffee” is derived from the Italian word caf*, which in turn comes from the Turkish word kahveh. It is thought that the Turks adopted the word from the Arabs, who named the dark beverage quhwah, which originated from Kaffa, the ancient coffee-producing region of eastern Ethiopia.

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