Coffee Plantation

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We stopped off at a place that was known to grow and sell coffee. They did quite a bit more than that. For instance, the ginger plant above grew in the couple dozen yards between the parking area and the tasting area. So did a lot of other spices.

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Coffee, cloves, snakeskin fruit, breadfruit, plus that stuff above that I can no longer tell one from another all grew in the thick, wild groves along the way. Finally we arrived at their first building where a young man was grinding coffee the traditional way – with an enormous wooden pestle and mortar.

BTW, notice that the parking lot was full of motorcycles? Seems locals like to shop there as well as bus loads of tourists. As we were leaving, another bus arrived.

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We were invited to give it a try. Of course I couldn’t resist, even as I thought that was a slick way of getting the tourists to do their work for them. I lasted for about a minute an a half. A few others in our group gave it a try. Then the poor young man was right back at it.

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They had a little Hindu shrine among the trees, which received it’s daily offerings. We saw several more of this kind of fabric shrine set up in various places, but it seemed most fitting here.

They also had a caged marmoset. They feed it coffee beans, which are then roasted and pounded to grounds and sold at a premium because apparently pooped out beans are particularly good. I can’t drink coffee anyway, so I didn’t

This was discovered in the colonial days when the European (Dutch?) owned the land and trees and forbid the people living there to partake of any of it. The overseers didn’t care about the beans that had been pooped, so the locals could have as much of that as they wanted. They prized it. Eventually the bosses gave it a try. Then the locals couldn’t have those beans either.

After that lovely story we were guided into the seating and given a chance to taste their wears. It was a little like a wine tasting except that instead of getting a glass to yourself with a sip of each item poured in at intervals they brought out cups full of coffee which they apparently expected us to all sip from in turn.

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The grounds beyond were much more extensive with a precipitous drop off and a rise on the opposite side. Though the lemon grass nearby made it look like a garden, they made it very clear we were not to go beyond the birdbath.

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Afterword we were guided to their sales floor where everyone went nuts for coffee, tea, spices, bath supplies, and general trinkets. Notice they only had three walls. The fourth was rolled up like in a store in a mall.

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