KRETEKS (CLOVE CIGARETTES): HISTORY, COMPONENTS, MAKING THEM

KRETEKS (CLOVE CIGARETTES)

Kreteks from the 1910s, containing resin, nutmeg, cumin, clove, and tobacco wrapped in banana leaves

Many Indonesians smoke “kreteks” — spicy, sweet-smelling cigarettes made with cloves mixed with tobacco and a secret sauce which may contain flavoring such as chocolate or dried fruits. Their smells can be found everywhere from airports to curbside eateries. Ninety percent of Indonesian smokers chose them over ordinary cigarettes. The name kretek is a reference to the cracking sound made by the cloves when they burn.

Kreteks typically consist of 60 to 80 percent of tobacco and 20 to 40 percent shredded clove buds, with the other ingredients making up small fractions of the total product. Often there is a sweetener on the tip. Although there are filtered kreteks, Indonesians prefer hand-rolled unfiltered ones. Indonesians also smoke, “kabong” leave roll ups.

Kreteks make up nearly 90 percent of the cigarette sales in Indonesia. Consumption of kreteks in Indonesia is so high that Indonesia — the world’s largest clove manufacturer — can not meet demand for cloves and must import them. Kreteks are largely banned or strictly regulated as cigarettes in countries like the US, where they are often classified as flavored cigarettes.

Kretek Popularity and Health Issues

pack of Sampoerna A-Mild, a popular Indonesian brand of kretek manufactured by Sampoerna

In his book on kreteks, author Mark Hanusz wrote, “Kretek is the common thread which ties Indonesian people together in spite of historical, cultural, ethnic and religious differences.” Indonesia’s great novelist Pramudya Ananta Toer loved his kreteks and continued smoking two packs them into his 80s even though he had a bad heart. He told Reuters, “If my doctor says I shouldn’t smoke. I’ll fire him. Really, why take away something so joyous in life...The taste of kreteks is Indonesia”

Some Indonesians claims that kreteks can improve one’s health. Although cloves can serve as a local anesthesia, numbing areas that come in contact with kretek smoke, kreteks there have at least double the nicotine and tar levels of normal cigarettes. The tar levels of some varieties that have raw, slowly cured tobacco are so high that some countries have banned them or restricted their import. Kreteks are associated with increased risks of severe lung issues, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, due to the anesthetic effects of eugenol from the cloves, which allows for deeper inhalation.

These days filter kreteks are more popular than they were in the past. Popular brands include Bentoel, Gudang Garam and Djarum. There are been light and mild versions, Among purists handrolled Dji Same Soe remains the best.

History of Kreteks

Kreteks are regarded not only as a cigarette but as a link to Indonesia’s culture and history. Indonesians have smoked kreteks for a long time. mostly blends of tobacco and cloves they rolled themselves. They were invented in the 1880s as a treatment for sore throats and asthma. The man who invented them, Haji Djamhari, from Kudus, rolled crushed cloves and tobacco on corn leaves and said smoking them relieved his asthma.

Kreteks were originally marketed as a medicinal, hand-rolled product and called rokok cengkeh (clove cigarettes). They were sold as remedies for respiratory issues before becoming popular for pleasure.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's most famous writer, smoking a kretek

Around 1906, a Kudud resident named Nitisemito started mass producing kreteks and selling them under the name “Bal Tiga” and introduced modern marketing techniques like embossed packaging. Despite early, small-scale production, the industry grew rapidly, with the Bal Tiga manufacturer alone employing over 15,000 workers by 1925.In 1932, the Dutch colonial government began taxing kretek products, signaling their economic importance.

In the 1950s and 60s, companies like Djarum and Gudang Garam grew from small enterprises into major manufacturers. The 1970s marked a crucial turning point with the introduction of cigarette-rolling machines. This allowed production to soar and enabled kretek to move beyond its traditional market, overtaking "white" cigarettes (non-clove) in popularity. By the end of the 20th century, kretek controlled over 85–90 percent of the cigarette market in Indonesia.

Clove Cigarette Industry

In 1913, a Chinese immigrant named Liem Seeng Tee began marketing one of the first brand name kreteks, Dji Sam Soe ("2-3-4", which added together produce the lucky number 9). They were an immediate success and are still popular today, using Liem's original secret blend. H.M. Sampoerna, the company that grew out of Liem's early efforts, is the largest of Indonesia's six major kretek producers. It had a a turnover of $1 billion a year in the early 2000s. [Source: Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times]

The kretek manufacturers Sampoerna, Djarum, and Bentoel dominate the cigarette market in Indonesia. In the early 2000s, kreteks were a $2 billion industry, employing 4 million people in various ways. They were Indonesia's number one consumer product and the government's largest source of tax revenue. Only the government employed more people. In addition to H.M. Sampoerna, other lage rpoducers included Kudus-based Djarum and Kediri-based Gudang Garam. Competition in the industry is quite stiff. Nitisemito died bankrupt in 1953.

Kudus, a town in Central Java near Semang, is the main center of kretek production. At one time it was home to over 200 factories, By the early 2000s, only a few major factories and a number of small cottage industries remain.

Workers in the Clove Cigarette Industry

Many kreteks are still rolled by hand with simple wooden machines, mainly because the government forgives the excise tax because it employs people. Most of the work in the early 2000s was done by women who were paid about $2 a day to roll 3000 clove cigarettes in seven hours, a day's work. A fast worker can roll 5,000 cigarettes, or even 7,000. about as many as a machine can roll in a minute.

The factory for Gudnag Guram, Indonesia's largest kretek maker,. has a hospital, nursery school and housing units for its employees. Not surprising the aroma of cloves permeates everything, Describing workers at the Gudnag Guram factory, Maggie Farley wrote in Los Angeles Times, "In a giant hall the size of an airplane hanger, 7,000 women sit in rows, hand-rolling kretek. They wear colorful head scarves to keep their hair back, and most have kicked off their shoes, tucking their bare feet underneath the long wooden benches. As the women work, their chatter floats above the twanging strains of piped in “dangdut” folk music; the high-roofed hall echoes like an aviary."

"With her long fingers flying, a 38-year-old woman named Partini rolls a cigarettes she puts a pinch of tobacco blend on a canvas strip, slaps down a cigarette paper and pulls a wooden lever to roll it all together. Her benchmate grabs the cigarette from a pile and snips the tobacco whiskers away with scissors."

Kudus: the Birthplace of Clove Cigarettes

Kudus (50 Kilometers east of Semarang, halfway between Hepara and Semarang) is known best to Indonesians as the birthplace of kretek (clove cigarette) and the center of kretek production. Tours of some of the kretek factories are available. Kudus played a pivotal part in the spread of Islam in Java. Kudus takes its name from the Arabic word “Al-Quds” meaning holy and it is recognized as the only town on Java to have an Arabic name. The town was founded by Ja’far Shodiq who later became one of the Wali Sanga or the nine apostles who spread Islam across the island of Java, taking the name Sunan Kudus.

The word "kretek" itself is an onomatopoetic term for the crackling sound of burning cloves. Bringing together tobacco from the New World and spices from the Old, kretek is a product of extraordinary historical circumstances, but its birthplace is Kudus, where the lingering traces of its distinctive aroma are an ever-present part of everyday life.

The origin of kretek cigarettes can be traced to the late 19th century. It is believed that the first person to add cloves to his cigarette was a man called H. Jamhari, a resident of Kudus. Suffering from chest pains, Jamhari attempted to reduce the pain by rubbing clove oil on his chest. Jamhari sought a means to achieve deeper relief and smoked his hand-rolled cigarettes after adding dried clove buds and rubber tree sap. According to the story, his asthma and chest pains vanished immediately. Word of Jamhari’s product spread rapidly among his neighbors, and clove cigarettes soon became available in pharmacies under the name of rokok cengkeh — clove cigarettes. Although first marketed as a medicinal product, kreteks became widely popular outside this capacity.

Around 1906, another Kudus resident named Nitisemito transformed the cottage industry into a mass-production industry in two ways: firstly, he created his own brand (Bal Tiga) and image. Nitisemito introduced marketing campaigns the likes of which Indonesia had not seen before. Beautiful labels were printed in Japan and free gifts were offered to loyal smokers in return for used packs. Secondly, he began to subcontract work. A middleman handled the labor, while Nitisemito provided the tobacco, cloves and sauce. This practice was quickly adopted by other kretek companies and continued up until mid-20th century, when companies began to hire their own employees as a way of ensuring quality and loyalty. However, The Bal Tiga Company did not recover after the Second World War and was declared bankrupt in 1955.

Trails and traces of the Kretek history can be observed at the Kretek Museum located in Jati Kulon. Established in 1985, the Museum presents the fascinating history of the authentic clove blended cigarettes through a number of interesting photographs and tools used in the production of kretek clove cigarettes.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources:“Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993; “Culture and Customs of Indonesia” by Jill Forshee, Greenwood Press, 2006; National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Indonesia Tourism website (indonesia.travel), Indonesia government websites, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated April 2026