Heavily caffeinated: Indonesians sip 4,000 cups of Java

BATUSANGKAR, Indonesia: Thousands of Indonesians lined up to get their mug of Java in the hopes of keeping alive a coffee tradition that dates back to Dutch colonial times.

"Everyone get your cup ready!" yelled an announcer to some 4,000 locals and visitors who sipped Kawa Daun coffee at a festival this week in Batusangkar on Sumatra island.

The area is home to a peculiar take on the drink that extracts flavour from the plant´s leaves rather than its beans.

It is an old-fashioned brew dating back to the colonial period when few locals could afford bean-extracted coffee.

So they boiled the throwaway leaves instead and served up the bitter beverage in cups made from dried coconut shells.

"I´m happy that we got to 4,000 cups of coffee -- it´s a new local record," declared Abdul Hakim, head of the local tourism office.

But folks in this remote pocket of Indonesia will have their work cut out to smash a national record set last year which saw some 1.9 million people sip a cup of coffee made the usual way.

At an open-air coffee shop near the festival, 37-year-old Efrizon was sipping a cup of Kawa Daun away from the caffeinated masses.

"It´s good for you and makes your body feel warm," he said of the local drink.

"And you´ve got this unique coconut shell to drink from instead of a glass."

The coffee competition is part of the five-day Minangkabau arts and culture festival, including a culinary ceremony known as Bajamba where hundreds of women walk in a procession with large, food-packed trays on their heads.

Their destination is scores of hungry revellers who sit on the floor across from each other, ready to tuck into local chili-infused dishes and a hugely popular slow-cooked curry known as rendang.

On Saturday, dozens of fearless racers will clasp the tails of angry bulls for a wet-and-wild race across rice paddies.