This Alcoholic Drink Wants to go Global – Apart from being known for its culinary delights and variety of spices, Indonesia also has several local alcoholic fermented drinks that have been around for a long time. Original Indonesian fermented drinks are usually made from sap water from palm trees.
Starting from NTT sopi, Balinese wine, Cap Tikus Minahasa, and many more. The existence of fermented drinks is usually enjoyed by the community during traditional events in an area.
However, now local fermented drinks have undergone many developments, variants and the existence of permits, standards and supervision from the government that makes these local drinks more active.
One of the local fermented drinks that has received permission to circulate is Cap Tikus 1978 from Minahasa. As the only mouse stamp that has a license to circulate, Head of Marketing for Cap Tikus 1978 Mario Baraputra said that the product began officially launching in December 2018.
Even though it had not been a year since Cap Tikus 1978, it now has a market all over Indonesia. Papua is the market most supplied with this 45% alcoholic beverage.
“The most supplies to Papua are a lot. So every month you can send 2 to 3 containers there,” said Mario who was met by Kontan.co.id.
Cap Tikus 1978 began to penetrate markets outside North Sulawesi in February. The retail price of Cap Tikus 1978 was Rp. 80 thousand, measuring 320 ml. With the development of the times and since the permit was issued, Cap Tikus 1978 gave a different touch with a unique packaging innovation.
The bottle design is made attractive so that it is not inferior to fermented beverage products from abroad that have been flooding Indonesia for a long time. Not only design, innovation is also carried out in flavor variants. Mario explained that the plan is that next month Cap Tikus 1978 will release a new flavor, namely the coffee rat stamp.
“In addition to the taste of coffee, there is also a bartender sachet. So this is a model like a sachet every time you buy one free bottle of one sachet with a different taste. There is a formula of 8, there are spices with ginger ginger and others, the sensation is hot, like herbal medicine. There will be 5 variants of the sachet later. , “continued Mario.
In one day Cap Tikus 1978 was able to produce 5000 bottles, supplies to the province as many as six containers or around 12 thousand cartons. One carton contains 12 bottles of mouse caps.
Mario explained that the raw materials for Cap Tikus 1978 were obtained from the sap farmers who paid their money to the factory. “We are 100% farmers, empowered farmers, our factory is only distillation, our mission to make this product is to help farmers. So this can be said to be one of the livelihoods of the Minahasa people,” said Mario.
The current trend of local fermented drinks, called Mario, began to creep up, especially after the support from the government for this original Indonesian fermented drink.
“This is increasing, yes, because we are supported by the customs government. The current government is quite strict on illegal drinks, so we hope that with the regulation that prohibits illegal drinks, legal local products can develop, can compete in the Indonesian market,” said Mario.
Not only penetrating all of Indonesia, Cap Tikus 1978 has also received offers abroad, namely the Chinese bamboo curtain country. However, currently Cap Tikus 1978 is still in the stage of preparing a permit for export to China.
Even though the trend of authentic Indonesian fermented drinks has begun to crawl, there are also challenges that are felt. Mario said that education about what a rat stamp is for people in Western Indonesia is now a homework that is felt.
“For those of us who live in the western region of Indonesia, we don’t really know the rat stamp. So we have to give product knowledge. People will definitely ask what the rat stamp is. How come the name of this mouse is what people would ask like that. There is a long time ago. In terms of the popularity of the local rat stamp, it’s a spirit that many people know, “explained Mario.
Another local fermented drink is Balinese arak. One of the villages in Bali, namely Les Buleleng Village, has many local fermented beverage home industries made from sap. The potential for local fermented drinks is read by the Kitchen Bali Mula brand.
One of the employees of the Bali Kitchen, Mula Nyoman Nadiana, said that fermented drinks themselves have been around for a long time and have been a tradition passed down from generation to generation. Unlike Cap Tikus 1978 which had already obtained a permit, arak from Les Village is now struggling to get permission to circulate.
“We collect drinks. We put the jars in class and we will open them later. Everyone is just waiting for permission. We are still very traditional so the taste is different from the others because we still use bamboo, that’s why our wine is yellow,” said Nyoman.
Just like Cap Tikus 1978, innovation is also carried out in order to continue to exist. Another taste of Bali Desa Les arak besides the original is jackfruit wine. Regarding the taste of jackfruit, it is explained that it is an innovation that arises from the abundance of jackfruit at harvest in Les Village.
“30 to 40% alcohol content, some 53% only the alcohol content is the influence of the weather because we still experience that we haven’t used machines. In summer it can be high in alcohol content. We are struggling to get permission,” said Nyoman.
The Les Village arak market itself is new in the Bali region because the proposed permit has not been issued. In addition to fermented drinks, there is also a Juruher which is called Nyoman as no less than the maple syrup abroad.
“Even if we don’t lose, sweet palm wine is not inferior to mapple syrup, palm wine turns into sugar. There are two types of lontar for girls and boys that produce boys. After that, tuak is cooked with wood into the sauce, why does it turn into sweet tuak or that way, boil it until it becomes half caramel. Maple syrup Bali, “said Nyoman while showing Juruh.
The production of fermented drinks in Les Village itself, especially in the Bali Mula Kitchen, is that for every 100 bottles of sap that the village farmers deposit, 60% will be made of fermented drinks and 40% will be made as whole. The price itself is very affordable, namely one 600 ml bottle costs IDR 125 thousand.
“If you look at it, the profit is small but proud because this is a local drink and preserves local culture. If we count our business, we can say that we have lost because of using bamboo, there must be bamboo that drains the liquid. But we are proud because it preserves tradition and also empowers the community,” Nyoman said.
Just like Mario, Nyoman also agrees that the trend of fermented drinks is growing. Fresh air from the government which increasingly makes fermented drinks is also seen as a tourism product.
“Actually, people’s mindset is that it is not safe to drink, but what is wrong is how to drink, if it is not true it is not safe, even though we make everything naturally,” said Nyoman.
Currently, the challenge that Nyoman says is the availability of raw materials. The production of fermented drinks is carried out during the first semester or summer. This is because many home industries are still very natural in manufacturing which makes the rainy season an obstacle.
In the future Mario and Nyoman hope that the potential for local fermented drinks will increasingly exist, the higher the government’s attention will make the negative stigma disappear.
It is emphasized that fermented drinks are a culture or tradition that has existed since our ancestors. Even Cap Tikus 1978 can now be found in airport stores in Minahasa as souvenirs.…