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Bali - a thing of wonder
My first trip to a coffee-producing country or “origin” (for anyone in the coffee industry) was a thing of wonder.
Recently I was lucky enough to be chosen to go on the Five Senses annual pilgrimage to visit the farms we work with in the Kintimani region of Bali. Landing at Denpasar airport was a slightly daunting adventure. Once you step outside the safety of those airport doors, your senses immediately go into overdrive! With the humidity hitting you instantly and the sweet aroma of cloves from the porters’ ‘kretek’ cigarettes spicing the air, the visuals then kick in. A wall of drivers from local hotels hold up the names of guests they are waiting to whisk away to their tropical paradise resorts. After some time sifting through the names, I found my hotel host, Made, waiting patiently for me. After meeting up with Natalie and Jed, we joined the buzz of a thousand scooters that is the Indonesian traffic – which is an adventure in itself.
Arriving in Ubud, we met up with the rest of our team, headed out for dinner and got some shut eye in preparation of our first full day in Bali.
There’s nothing better than nature’s alarm clock, the rooster, to wake you up at 4:00am in the morning. It’s great! After some amazing rice flour and banana pancakes, we headed down to Seminyak to do some cupping and light barista training with the Sea Circus team. Jumping behind the bar to do some training with head barista, Geday, I was stunned to see he could probably teach me a thing or two, when he pulled out multi-leaf tulips on the top of his coffees! It was a great experience to see the Indonesian staff crowding round, eager to learn more about the craft of producing fabulous espresso coffee.
The following day, we travelled to the volcanic region of Kintimani, where Five Senses and, in particular Shaughan Dunne, have been working to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with a relatively small ‘subak abiyan’ or local co-op of coffee farmers. The day was spent amongst the coffee and citrus trees, picking ripe coffee cherries. I now have a great appreciation of the amount of work and concentration that goes into picking only the ripest of cherries. We picked cherries from three different varieties of coffee plant (B1, S795 and USDA.) The aim was to process each variety in three different ways – natural, pulped natural and washed. Once these were ready, we will have them sent to our cuppers in Australia to see which one was the best variety. We also wanted to test which process worked best for which variety. My contribution was to experiment with drying the coffee cherry skins to produce a tea-like drink called cascara. I’m really keen for this shipment to land in Oz to see how it all worked out.
The following morning bought more rooster crowing, and a drive up the mountain to another one of the farms where Five Senses has a relationship with the growers. This time, we got to see a wet mill in action, and our Five Senses crew carrying buckets of parchment coffee in traditional Balinese style … on the head! Luckily there were no accidents. Once lunch was finished, we got to see Shaughan in action, negotiating the price of this year’s harvest. The process looked like hard work from where I was sitting. Everyone walked away happy and smiling – which was great to see.
This trip was a great opportunity for me to see the amount of work it takes to maintain a sustainable relationship with a coffee farm from year to year. If you are in a position to travel to an origin country, and experience not only where coffee comes from, but the culture of the people who grow the beverage that you love to drink every day, don’t hesitate for a second. It’s an amazing opportunity!
A big thank you to Five Senses and Shaughan for letting me tag along.
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