Kretek (krē'tek) are
cigarettes made with a complex blend of
tobacco,
cloves and a flavoring 'sauce'. The word "kretek" itself is an
onomatopoetic term for the crackling sound of burning cloves.Haji Jamahri, a resident of
Kudus,
Java, created kreteks in the early
1880s as a means to deliver the medicinal
eugenol of cloves to the lungs, as it was thought to help
asthma. It cured his chest pains and he started to market his invention to the village, but he died before he could mass market it. M. Nitisemito took his place and began to commercialize the new cigarettes. Today, kretek manufacturers directly employ over 180,000 people in
Indonesia and an additional 10 million indirectly.
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. k.o. cigarette containing choped cloves. 2. k.r(Java) horse-drawn cart