Kintamani Coffee Plantation

Visited a coffee plantation in Bali where very famous coffee is grown and sold in the shop right there. The first thing we saw was kind of a garden with different trees, bushes, and plants all around. Also, there was some animal that looked like a cat, sleeping in some sort of a cage. Hmm, weird, but ok, let's move on.

Then there's an area where freshly gathered coffee beans are placed in wooden bins, according to their kind. I thought all coffee is the same, but I learned quite a few things about it.

It turns out that coffee beans here are separated into two, according to their "gender": male or female. No kidding! I didn't know that coffee has gender. Anyways, the beans that look as if they are cut in half (those that are usually drawn on all coffee packages) are called "female", and those that are more or less round in shape all over, like a little ball, are called "male" coffee and taste 3 times stronger than the "female" beans. A guy at the table was sorting individual coffee beans into two sets of bins.

Another guy was sitting nearby and roasting those beans.

Next to the place where they sort and roast coffee was a little café, where they serve samples of all the coffee that they grow on that plantation. All samples were for free, except one, called Kopi Luwak, which was 30,000 rupiahs (or $3) per tiny sample cup. Hm, that's weird, but let's order all the samples and try them. First, tried different flavored ones, then tried that "female" coffee, than "male", and finally that expensive one. As I practically don't drink coffee at all, I can't really distinguish the taste and tell which one is good or not, but that last one tasted nice, like caramel and chocolate or something. So, out of curiousity, I ask why this last coffee is not for free. People who work there speak several languages including Russian, among many others. So, they said it's not for free, as that kind is the most expensive coffee in the world. I was puzzled. I thought that those are the same beans that they collect, just like any other beans. Imagine my surprise when they started telling me how exactly that coffee is produced. Remember that "cat" who was in that net cage in the garden? It turns out that it's a kind of a cat that eats coffee berries and beans. But because he cannot digest them, the coffee "comes out" of that cat as poop. The enzymes in his body break down the coffee's bitterness, that's why the taste of that coffee is "different". The excreted coffee beans are then washed, roasted, and ground. And because very little amounts of that coffee is "produced", the price is extremely high. Oh my! I drank coffee made from cat's shit, LOL.

Here are some more pictures from the garden of that coffee plantation. It is a very lovely place to visit and enjoy a cup of the most expensive coffee in the world.

Cocoa:

Aloe Vera:

Zalacca (not sure about the name):

Jalapeno peppers:

Papaya: