Do you know "tea poci"? It's meaning tea served piping hot in an earthenware pot locally known as "poci".

The tea poci is specially of both the municipality and regency of Tegal-- name of small town in Central Java Indonesia, about 181 miles from Jakarta--that has long been renamed as the "City of tea".

During my experience, many restaurant or other traditional eating places (called "warung") as they are locally known also have the name of tea companies on it as sponsors. Such as, tea enak (delicious tea), tea merdeka (freedom tea) etc.

To have a cup of poci tea is not difficult. Every "warung" restaurant and hotel serve it, not just in the evening but also during the day. Many hotels serve it as a welcome drink. For the several years, Tegal tea product are wellknown for its specific jasmine tea fragrance. To turn it into a flavor some poci tea, the poci is put inside a poci and then suffused with extremely hot water to yield a thick brew.

Many locals believe that the longer a poci is used to brew tea, the more tasty the tea is. A long time used poci for its dark crust inside. A new poci usually need specific treatment before it is used to brew tea so as to create crust and thus get rid of it's original clay smell, which is believed to be capable of destroying to tea aroma.

So far there has been no clear explanation regarding when exactly such as tradition of tea drinking started in tegal. However, many believe that it was started as early as the 1930s, following estabilshment of number of tea factories in the region.

Well, if you visit Indonesia, come to this town and smell a strong beauty of poci tea.

*The Writer is an independent journalist, also student at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) - From Indonesia.