Solong Coffee

It was the eleventh day we were in the streets. Accompanied by two friends, I have been traveled hundreds of miles using two scooters from west Java to the east of Indonesia. We were going to meet Herman, a local young man from North Solong, part of Montong Gading village in East Lombok.

We arrived at his place when Inang Sairin, Herman’s mother, read Quran with the oil lamp as a lightning. She then served us coffee. Herman invited us to be the first to raise a glass. Miraculously, he drank the coffee at once until the glass was empty and finished it with shrinking coffee grounds at the mouth using his sleeves. Wait, we might not have thought that Herman was so thirsty in his own place.

Suddenly he laughed, and said, “I forgot to tell. This specialty coffee made here by my mother. Simply drink this coffee every morning, we already think of it as breakfast.” We immediately looked at it. It was different than other types of coffee. The color was darker, old black mature. The floating coffee grounds looked bigger and rough. Its flavor seemed like freshly baked coffee beans. In a foretaste, the tastes were sweet, savory, and concentrated.

He told me that almost all of residents here in North Solong village choose to make their own coffee instead of buying instant coffee sold in stalls. Herman said, “People here love coffee. Even my father would complain and grumpy if a day does not drink coffee.”

What a coffee! It could make people grumpy if they do not drink it. Apparently, the reason why the coffee used as a substitute for breakfast was because of the high carbohydrate content. People here could only go farming after drinking coffee and back on the afternoon without having to return home for lunch. That was its beneficial property. Inang Sairin made it by adding the rice and cooks it by dry roasting. Each person has a taste. Sometimes there is also a mix coffee with pimento or corn. It may sound normal. But what amazing here was all the residents in Solong did it.