Sandy Goes to Sanda

Back into the interior of the island of Bali, we spent our last two days in the mountains, cool and lush with rice paddies terracing the hillsides. The irrigation systems in these fields are a thousand years old, sophisticated and community-based. Water from a single source courses through plots owned by many different families. The swirling patterns and steppes created are artistic designs of their own.

Sanda is also where we visited the "kopi lewat" (civet coffee) farm. You may have heard of it - civets, cat-like creatures, consume coffee beans, then excrete them whole. Their poop is collected, and the coffee beans separated from the shit, roasted, and sold for much bank in the states and elsewhere (it is one of the official coffees of South Korea). The brewing process is like a science experiment, done in a beaker over an open flame. The beans are very finely ground, so no strainer is used or necessary. It has a deep, rich flavor, and no taint of the place from which it issues forth! :)

The second plate from the left has the dried, unseparated civet poop/coffee bean combo, while plates 3 and 4 are unroasted, separated male and female beans. It is said that the male beans taste better, but we did not taste them side by side. The woman in the picture is one of the owners of the 30-civet farm. Tom, who actually likes the coffee very much, wears the face I imagine my father would maintain were he here contemplating the enterprise. But I did buy a kilo of beans to share with friends back home and with our local coffee shop in hopes of engendering some business for this ambitious start up!

 

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