Ubud Spice Farm
Have you ever wondered what Balinese coffee beans look like on the branch? Or what cacao beans look like before roasted? Well.... wonder no more! Today we visited a spice farm where they grow coffee, cacao beans, ginger, cinnamon (it comes from the bark of trees - I didn't know that!) and vanilla beans. The cacao fruit (?) looks like a papaya. The seeds are found inside.
Here is our driver friend Wayan giving us the low-down on the spices. There is an expensive Balinese coffee bean that involves an interesting process. The mongoose have a taste for only the best coffee beans, leaving aside the less-tasty beans. Once the beans make their way out of the mongoose (don't make me spell this out) the beans are cleaned, roasted, ground and sold for a nifty price. Why are we humans so weird? Why pay more for coffee beans that have been in mongoose poop?
I loved the spice farm - always great to know where your spices come from (and in this case, your coffee beans too!). My mom asked for one thing on this trip - spices. So I was especially happy to pick up some Balinese specialties for my mom, the exotic cook.
