Bali is quite famous for its coffee. The island grows two species of coffee trees: Coffea canephora (robusta) and C. arabica (arabica). Our driver, Jek, brought us to a coffee farm called Hidden Garden Agriculture nestled in the lush mountains in the central part of the island.
I'm not a coffee drinker but I was a sensory evaluator for instant coffee when I was still working as a quality assurance supervisor at the Antonina Industrial Corporation (many years ago). So this visit piqued my professional curiosity. Val's not a coffee drinker either but he was game to taste what the coffee farm had to offer.
The tour guide walked us through the different steps for processing coffee. I was familiar with these because I used to spend summer holidays in Padre Garcia, Batangas when my grandparents' farm used to produce coffee.
However, I was amazed at how Kopi Luwak, or coffee beans that has been "processed" (i.e., coffee cherries were eaten and fermented, resulting in coffee beans pooped) by Asian palm civet cats. These animals are nocturnal, which is why we saw this sleeping civet cat in a coop.
After "harvesting" the civet cats' poops, the farmer dried the beans and ground them similar to how they do it with regular coffee beans. But because kopi luwak is more difficult to produce in bulk, it's expensive! In fact, it's so expensive that it's not part of the coffee tasting activity we did at the farm.
I had thought that we were there only for coffee tasting. But the Hidden Garden had more products in store for us. Val tasted different coffee blends and tea flavours the way a regular consumer would: he just drank them and picked which one he liked best.
He had to be quite patient with me, however, because habits die hard. I took small sips for each product, swirled them in my mouth to aerate them and release aromas, then I swallowed the product to figure out the textures and the tastes. After trying out each product, I described what I perceived to him and I drank water to cleanse my palate. So it took me a long time to go through 14 samples.
My faves for this tasting session (in no particular order) were: pandan tea, vanilla coffee, and chocolate coffee. Coconut coffee came in as a close runner up. Val and I ended up buying kopi luwak as pasalubong and tea for personal consumption.
On Instagram, I often see people on what they call "Bali Swing". We skipped that bit and so we ended our coffee tasting and farm tour with a photo at a heart-shaped seat overlooking the coffee trees and banana shrubs that dotted the mountain slopes.
Our visit to Hidden Garden Agriculture was a welcome break from our temple run in Bali. I'd like to do another food trip at some point during our adventure.
Located amidst the verdant jungles of Ubud, Ayung Swing in Bali has gained international acclaim for its heart-pounding swings suspended high above the Ayung River.
ReplyDelete