Eureka "Nusantara" Tea!

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

An aerial view of the Malabar tea plantation in Pengalengan, Bandung regency, West Java, shows the beautiful scenery of the plantation on June 22, 2019 (22/6/2019). The area has become a tourist destination where visitors come to see the sunrise.

Tea in the Indonesian nusantara (archipelago) is on a steep decline. But tea business promoters, especially smallholders, are trying to rise again. They are convinced that nusantara tea has the strength to return to its heyday.

Those were some of the findings made by Kompas during its Nusantara Tea Expedition along Java and Sumatra from mid-June to early August 2019. This expedition involved 26 people, comprising reporters, photographers. videographers, graphic artists and researchers from the Research and Development Division of Kompas.