Kreteks or clove cigarettes, are Indonesian cigarettes made with a complex blend of tobacco, cloves and a flavoring 'sauce'. The Indonesian word kretek is an onomatopoeia 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 employ well over 180,000 people in Indonesia, which accounts for 95% of the world's clove market.[citation needed]

Kreteks are by far the most widely-smoked form of tobacco in Indonesia, where about ninety percent of smokers usually smoke kreteks instead of plain tobacco, which are called "whites".[citation needed] In the United States, clove cigarettes have been associated with artists and the goth, punk, and indie subcultures.

In Indonesia, there are hundreds of kretek manufacturers, including small local makers and major brands. Most of the widely-known international brands, including Bentoel, Djarum, Gudang Garam, Sampoerna, Dji Sam Soe, and Wismilak, originate from Indonesia. Nat Sherman of the United States produces cigarettes branded as "A Touch of Clove", but are arguably not kreteks since they contain clove flavoring in the filter rather than actual clove spice mixed with the tobacco.[1]

Kreteks generally take somewhat longer to smoke than do regular cigarettes of the same size.