“Welcome to the roving coffee sellers’ area,” read the words written on the red entrance gate to Jl. Prapatan in Senen, Central Jakarta, an area now known as Kampung Starling.

Parked along the first 100 meters of the road were hundreds of bicycles and dozens of food wagons. The bicycles belonged to a group of men referred to as starling.

The term is derived from “Starbucks keliling” a play on the name of the famous American coffeehouse chain, with keliling meaning mobile, hence they are roving coffee sellers.

In the front part of each bicycle, sachets of instant drinks of various brands hang from the baskets, including coffee, tea, fruit-flavored beverages and milk. Also placed in the baskets are prepacked cups of instant noodles and light snacks such as nuts. On the back of the bike, meanwhile, is an icebox, thermos, plastic cups and cigarettes.

It was early on Wednesday afternoon and Slamet, one of the "starling" vendors, had just woken up from his nap. Just like any other day, he had worked from dusk until dawn and then slept throughout the morning.

“I wake up in the afternoon and then prepare my bike for the night. After dusk prayers, I hit the road again and sell coffee until the next morning,” Slamet told The Jakarta Post.

“I only roam around Senen, from here to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital and Jl. Proklamasi. When I was younger, I could ride my bike as far as Pancoran [in South Jakarta],” he added.

Slamet was one of the first people in the kampung to sell coffee on a bicycle in the early 2000s. Since the settlement appeared in the 1980s up to when the starling businesses mushroomed, people sold bottled tea on pushcarts.

The 40-year-old reminisced about the days when he started using a bicycle for business and people laughed at him. Now that the business has grown, Slamet said he wished only for all coffee sellers to be healthy and always be careful while selling beverages on the roads.

“There’s no competition here. We’re all brothers,” Slamet said, noting that he earned around Rp 300,000 (US$21) per day.

“We like it when there are public events or protests taking place in the city, or the regular Car Free Day on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin on Sundays. During those times, each of us can earn up to Rp 800,000 a day,” he added.

Hit the road: A street vendor rides his bicycle carrying coffee sachets and hot water to be sold to customers in Jakarta.(JP/Gede Dharma)

There are around 500 coffee sellers in Kampung Starling and they are supplied by nine wholesalers, who also run their business from Kampung Starling. Almost all of them come originally from Madura Island in East Java.

Starlings might occasionally expand their businesses through strategic marriages. Slamet’s neighbor, Syaiful, 35, at the age of 25 married the daughter of a wholesaler in 2009.

Syaiful spent only three years riding a bicycle around the city selling coffee. In 2012, he took over the wholesale store management.

Today, he is the boss of the wholesale firm, which supplies 65 riders, by day and a security officer in an office building in Sunter, North Jakarta, during the night. His wife is in charge of the shop’s finances.

“I can sell 8,000 boxes of instant coffee sachets within three months,” the father-of-one said.

“My starling riders operate mainly in Central Jakarta, like in Menteng or around Suropati Park. Some can reach Kuningan in South Jakarta and even Sunter,” he added.

One box contains 12 sachets, so in three months Syaiful’s coffee sellers manage to sell around 96,000 cups of instant coffee.

If the figure is divided by the number of days, it would mean that the coffee sellers from one wholesaler sell up to 1,000 cups per day. Since there are nine wholesalers, it means roughly 9,000 cups of instant coffee are sold daily.

“The kampung is so popular that many instant beverage companies splurge their money on us through lotteries and prizes. I myself have gotten 10 grams of gold from a coffee brand,” he added.

He recalled some other wholesalers who have won other prizes like motorcycles, gadgets and household appliances. He and his fellow wholesalers are aiming to win a free umrah (minor haj) from a coffee brand.

The head of RT 01 neighborhood unit, where the kampung is located, Herwanto, said he was impressed by the Madurese workers’ work ethics. He said husbands are not the main breadwinners in Madurese households because the wives are not used to staying at home doing domestic chores.

“Did you see any women hanging out along the alley gossiping with their neighbors? I don’t think you did. People here are different. They’re hard workers,” he said.

“While the husbands are selling coffee on bikes, the wives also run their business. Some also sell coffee but use hand-carried baskets. Some sell ice blocks and hot water, while others pack nuts or other light snacks,” he added.

Herwanto called on the instant beverage companies to pay more attention to the coffee sellers instead of focusing only on the wholesalers.

“After all, the starling riders are the ones who make the sales. They should get more credit and rewards for working hard day and night,” he said.