Catpoochino!

Off to the coffee plantation in Ubud, Indonesia. What a great day! We meandered along the road to Ubud, stopped at a few wood carving shops, a silversmith, and a a few metal shops. We were able to grab a new mask and a crazy Balinesian handle for our sliding bathroom door. Good finds!

We worked our way into the jungle to a coffee plantation. We stopped. And we explored. We were greeted by a nice Balinesian man who proceeded to give us the grand tour. “These are the cats.” Wait, what? The cats? This is a coffee plantation. Umm. What?

Well, you see, apparently these wild cats, palm civets, love arabica coffee beans. From what we could gather, the cats ate the beans! Not good for the coffee farmers. But wait. The cats cannot digest the bean. Their enzymes seep into it but do not digest. So, the bean is still whole once the cat, um, poohs. The farmers look for the cat poo and gather it. They then wash the beans, dry the beans, roast the beans, and grind the beans. Alas, coffee! A catpoochino! Seriously, I can’t make this up.

We watched the entire process. And then sampled. Yum! Actually, the catpoochino, known as luwak coffee, tasted a lot like regular coffee. But the others. Wow! Ginger, ginseng, coconut, vanilla, on and on and on, so yummy! Most people go on vacation and order a tequila flight. Well, we had a coffee flight–for $50,000! Don’t worry, that’s only about $4 USD. Nearly 20 samples, well worth it.
After our sampling, we snatched up a couple bags of coffee, for sale of course, and made our way back down the mountain. We left the coffee plantations and had lunch overlooking the rice fields. A great day in Bali, an educational field trip, and catpoochinos! More fun in Asia!