Lada — the Peppers: Muntok White, Lampung Black, Long Pepper and Cubeb

Pepper, Piper nigrum, is a climbing vine of the Indian subcontinent that reached the Indonesian islands in antiquity and became one of the archipelago's great trade goods, with Sumatra and Java supplying the markets that Tomé Pires describes in the Suma Oriental. Lada Putih Muntok, the protected white pepper of the island of Bangka, takes its name from the port of Muntok and is the best known of the archipelago's peppers. Lampung, at the southern tip of Sumatra, is the old centre of black pepper. Before the black and white peppers spread, the Javanese long pepper, Piper retrofractum, and cubeb, Piper cubeba, were the peppers of the Javanese and island kitchens, and both remain in the Javanese pantry.

Muntok white pepper is the ripe berry of Piper nigrum, steeped in water to loosen the skin, which is rubbed off and the pale kernel dried; it gives a clean, sharp heat with a fermented note from the steeping. Lampung black pepper is the berry picked green to yellowing and sun-dried until the skin blackens and wrinkles, giving a rounder, resinous heat. Javanese long pepper is the dried catkin-like spike of Piper retrofractum, cylindrical, dark and pungent with a sweet edge. Cubeb, Piper cubeba, is a round berry on a short stalk, the tail that gives it the name kemukus or lada berekor, with a camphorous, bitter-aromatic bite. Each is used whole or freshly ground; none keeps its character long once ground.

White pepper is the pepper of clear soups, of soto and sop, of fish and of dishes where a pale colour must hold; black pepper suits grilled meats, beef and the dark bumbu of Sumatra. Long pepper and cubeb are used in the older Javanese bumbu and in the spiced drinks the tradition takes. Pepper is a sharp, volatile heat that cuts through coconut milk and fat, and it is paired with them for that reason; it is drunk alongside hot tea and the sweet black coffee of the Sumatran and Javanese table.