Days 123-125: Java Jive
I love coffee, I love tea
I love the java jive and it loves me
Coffee and tea and the Java and me
A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup – boy!
Let’s be honest: anyone who knows Marcus knows that he’s a coffee addict. So it was only a matter of time (that time being 12 years, 4 months, and 6 days) before he got Kelly to order and drink a cup of coffee. Huzzah!
We took a train to the primere coffee growing region of Java on the Ijen Plateau and stayed in the town of Kalibaru. We stayed in the cheapest place in town (~$15 a night) but it was by far the nicest place we’ve stayed on the trip. That being said, the mosquitos didn’t know it was a posh hotel (or maybe they did!) and were merciless (the coils work much better in tiny rooms).
We took not one, but two tours of coffee (and other) plantations in the area. The first was to a local growers co-op that farmed coffee, cocoa, pepper, and plam sugar. The coffee plants were in bloom and smelled like jasmine. It was also the start of the prime picking season, and so the trees were full of red, ripe beans.
The small farms did all of their processing by hand, including using this hand-cranked coffee bean skin crusher.
It seemed like every house in the area was involved in coffee production, including these colorful places that were using their front yards to dry beans.
The production of palm sugar was quite interesting. They would cut off the flowers of a coconut palm and put a plastic bucket (made from a radiator fluid bottle) to catch the palm juice. They then reduced the liquid in big batches for hours over open fires and poured the condensed sugar into moulds made from coconut shells. We got to try the syrup midway through, and it was terrific! The smell from the boiling palm juice filled the nearby plantations with a sweet toffee scent.
How else to finish a hard day of touring coffee plantations than sampling the local brew.
Our second tour took us to a very large state-owned plantation in nearby Glenmore (not a very Indonesian sounding town). Here they grew and processed rubber, cocoa, and coffee. The rubber harvest is pretty brutal since the farmers need to carve every tree every day starting at o’dark thirty. The rubber is collected, pressed into sheets, and then smoked for 5 days – which explains why it smells like smoked salmon. The rubber is exported to companies such as Dunlop, Goodyear, and Michelin, so you could be riding on rubber handled by us when you buy your next set of tires (so it’s probably best to drive safe).
The main coffee harvest was just beginning.
This plantation claims to process 10 tons of coffee per day during the main harvest season. So after Marcus has had his fill, there may be a little left for export.
En route to the cocoa plantation, we were blocked by a truck unloading rice. Marcus decided to step-in and help “move things along” more quickly. But all but one of the locals sat down and left Marcus to unload the cargo.
We had never seen a cocoa tree before, and we have to say that it is just plain weird.
The red bean pods are under-ripe and eventually turn a nice shade of yellow/orange. Inside of the pod are a bunch of large seeds that are covered by a white fruit. When processing the seeds, they don’t seem to knock themselves out with removing the fruit. That might be because the swarms of fruit flies take care of that for them.
Now we have to mention a terrible travesty that has occured. Yes, we are of course refering to the end of monkey shit coffee (kopi luwak). Technically the “luwak” is more like a bear/civet that lives in the trees and eats only the ripest, choicest coffee beans from the trees. So it was not surprising that some farmers were reluctant to give up these beans. They collected the excrement of the luwak, cleaned off the additional “matter” and roasted up the beans for a cup of java. We’ve talked to many people here who swear that it is fantastic coffee. The state-run plantation even had a separate arm in its wall-sized production flow chart for kopi luwak. But it is no longer available because the luwak has been hunted to the point that kopi luwak is no longer available. The luwak always takes care of business in the same place (we all have favorites, don’t we?) and hunters just wait for them to return. Regretably, we will be leaving Java without having sampled coffee that has passed completely through another animal’s digestive tract. But we have heard of a similar animal operating in Vietnam, so there’s hope yet!
Tags: Indonesia
Kelly & Marcus
July 16th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
And where is the photo of Kelly drinking the long awaited coffee (don’t want to rush into these things, do you Kel)???
No comment on the luwak issue – I’ll leave that for JT and Dad to deal with….
Many hugs xoxoxo
July 17th, 2005 at 4:08 pm
Marcus:
How exactly do you say “step aside” in Indonesian?
I’ll leave the luwak to the old man…
Jon
July 18th, 2005 at 5:45 am
Not sure how to say “step aside” (athough it sure would be useful at times). But I do know “Nasi sudah menjadi bubur” which means “the rice has already become porridge” and “Saya dituduh apa?” which is “What am I accused of?”
July 18th, 2005 at 5:53 am
The picture of Kel drinking her first cup of coffee (yes, Marcus did take a picture to commemorate this blessed event) was not that exciting. But we promise a good picture of Kel drinking something else in the next entry. 🙂
July 18th, 2005 at 9:09 am
I hear corn is good the second time around too. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘refried’ beans…don’t think you see that in restrauant near me.
July 19th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Well on the brighter side, if you send some beans to JPL, we can eat them and let you guys remove the extra “matter” and drink a good cup of human-java. Whats the diff? With exception to the occassional pea or corn gibblet, its gonna taste yummy!