We often tend to typecast destinations with particular activities and remain stuck to those only. eg Bali is for sea bathing, New Zealand is for adventure sports, Dubai is for shopping, etc etc. What I want to say is that although there is no harm in sticking just to the touristy things, we should definitely venture out of the box. We should try to interact with the locals to find out other off beat activities too. Having said that, Bali is not just beaches. The Northern part of Bali is equally stunning and way colder too and the mountains are just breathtaking. I was adamant about visiting the Ulun Danu Beratan Temple (which most Indian tourists avoid because of its distance from Kuta/Ubud. However while returning from there, we had one of the most indigenous Balinese experiences: Coffee tasting.
I don't know about you but I had almost no idea about coffee and Bali. I although had heard about Luwak coffee and that became very apparent as soon as we landed in Bali. Everywhere we saw posters and hoardings of Luwak coffee. Our schedule was loose while returning from the most beautiful temple of Bali and hence we decided to halt in one of the farms that appealed to us the most.
Turns out the coffee farm was a huge area and our escort was too sweet. We started by touring the coffee trees, inspecting their berries and also got to saw cocoa and vanilla trees. Then we were taken for the ultimate adventure: the process of making Luwak coffee.
What is Luwak coffee?
Luwak is a rodent, vincent cat in English. These are tiny yet ferocious nocturnal animals that feed on coffee berries. However they are unable to digest those so they expel them with their stools. These coffee bean laden stools are collected from all over the gardens, washed, dried, roasted and then ground to make Luwak coffee. Of course each step is done by hand, manually and that explains the exorbitant cost of this exotic coffee.
We visited the captive Luwaks and then went to the kitchen where everything was being done. I too tried my hand in roasting some beans. After this entire demonstration, we were taken to the Coffee tasting session.
Almost every coffee farm in Bali serves at least 30 types of coffee and 20 types of tea. The flavours range from chocolate to coconut to hibiscus to vanilla to every possible flavour you can think of. The interesting part? The tasting is absolutely FREE! However one coffee that is not included in this free tasting is Luwak coffee. That is totally understandable as it's soo expensive. I had a great time tasting all those cups of coffee and hubs tea.
We really wanted to buy something since our escort had spent so much time and effort in all the demonstration and he was very sweet too. However we could not find a packing that was small enough to suit our budget. So we left empty handed. This was indeed an excellent experience that was not on our itinerary but definitely a must do when in Bali.
