Kalani isn’t the only person tweaking jamu for a new audience, as he’s also entered the local cocktail scene. At Bali’s hip beach club, Potato Head’s Indonesian restaurant Kaum, head bartender Bina Nuraga gives international guests a taste of Indonesia by mixing turmeric jamu with pandan-infused rum. “As jamu consists of turmeric, ginger and pandan leaf, it adds a spicy touch to cocktails, as well as a nice earthy note and bitterness as well,” Nuraga said.
Meanwhile, American chef Will Goldfarb of Netflix’s Chef’s Table fame shows at his Ubud restaurant Room4Dessert how jamu can be a dessert, too. Describing the elixir as “timeless”, the chef, who drinks jamu every morning, immediately knew what ingredient to add to his “Incidente Stradale”, a variation of a traditional tiramisu. “The plate is brushed with just a little jamu concentrate, which keeps it from being too dull,” Goldfarb said. “We have also recently used jamu for our botanical bombolonis [Italian doughnuts] double. It’s passion fruit with a crisp jammy crust.”
But young entrepreneurs are determined to take Jamu further. A third generation Moluccan recently launched Good Jamu in the Netherlands. Anna Uspessij, who spent seven years in Indonesia learning about her heritage, returned to the Netherlands during the pandemic. After making jamu in Bali, she wanted to keep it in her daily ritual. When Uspessij could only find jamu powder for sale in the Netherlands, she started making fresh turmeric and ginger jamu for her family and friends. Word spread and she is now selling her Good Jamu brand online and in organic grocery stores across the country. The orange-colored tropical juice can confuse Dutch shoppers, she said: “They say, ‘I thought it would be sweet,’ but they still think it’s really good.”
The entrepreneur, who now plans to bring the brand to Germany, said she didn’t modify the ingredients for Western tastes: “It’s a cultural heritage and I don’t want to water it down.”
Culinary roots is a BBC Travel series that connects to rare, local foods woven into the heritage of a place.
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