TheJakartaPost
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Death is near for young, cashless Jakartans
Omar, not his real name, 23, goes out from one of the stalls with a plastic bag in his hand, but it is not food that he has bought. It is ciu, a Javanese liquor made mainly from fermented sugar cane.
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This image shows an illustration of a bottle of bootleg liquor. (Shutterstock.com/File)
I
t’s around 10 p.m. on Friday night. From the food stalls along one of the main roads in East Jakarta, the aroma of fried catfish and chicken noodles fills the air.
Omar, not his real name, 23, goes out from one of the stalls with a plastic bag in his hand, but it is not food that he has bought. It is ciu, a Javanese liquor made mainly from fermented sugar cane.
Inside one of the stalls, a 24-year-old, who only wants to be called Budi, runs his bootleg business. Budi only sells ciu, made in the backyard of his home. He sells it on his own.
He is popular among street youth in the area because he is brave enough to run his business in the face of police raids. He also sells his liquor at an affordable price.
For Rp 35,000 (US$2.62), anyone can get a liter of ciu funneled into a used mineral water bottle and safely wrapped up in a black plastic bag.
“Try it, I guarantee you won’t die. Tastes good,” Budi told The Jakarta Post, laughing as he fixes his hat and his messy hair. “People drink it all the time because there’s a warm feeling in it. It cheers them up.”
Bootleg liquor, locally known as oplosan, usually self-made and containing unsafe ingredients, is familiar to the youth of the city because it is easily accessible.
