A colourful welcome from the villagers at Kiadan Pelaga, where life is devoted to keeping its beans pure. Photo / Winston Aldworth
Winston Aldworth finds a coffee culture of a different kind in this Balinese village.
If you like coffee, you'll love Kiadan Pelaga. The little village in the highlands holds a special place in Bali's coffee history; this is where the magic bean was first grown on the island.
Today 750 villagers live and work here, with coffee still the primary source of income. But
the locals are diversifying, realising coffee-chugging Westerners will be happy to get some dirt on their shoes to see where the magic bean comes from and get a taste of village life along with a cup of the bitter bean. So for coffee lovers, Kiadan Pelaga, 1100m above sea level, is a treat.
Locals will show you around on a day excursion or you can book in for a night or two and get a fuller immersion into village life.
The accommodation is basic, but that's part of the charm. The villagers plant robusta beans for their own coffee consumption while the more fiddly arabica trees provide the beans they grind and roast for sale. Robusta can be popped into any rough patch of ground and needs the bare minimum of care, but arabica needs a little TLC.
The small, white flowers on the arabica plants smell of sweet jasmine and the resulting brew is sweeter than the robusta.
The farming here is organic and the locals are doing all they can to maintain the soil in natural condition. On a tour of the land, we see bamboo planted to prevent erosion, various flowers and greenery that do the job of pesticides and cows that provide the fertiliser. Jempinis trees also keep the bugs away, though the farmers tell us it's planted more in hope than certainty; keeping the coffee plants healthy and bug-free, whilst also qualifying for the must-have organic stamp of approval, is a big job.
Woven among the plantation, villagers are at work in little "kebun" (gardens) producing other crops for local consumption.
Here, coffee is a way of life.
"In the west you have the BBC," our guide Gede Wirata tells me. "Here in Bali, we also have the BBC: bananas, bamboo and coffee."
They serve their own coffee, "kope lok", as a thick, tar-like java. Heated to a fudgy gloop in a pot over an open fire, there's a touch of cinnamon and a wedge of sugar is added when the coffee is served. You'll need the sweetener; this is no palate-massaging flat white. The locals will also serve their coffee with cacao grown in the village.
Either way, it's delicious, made better for being served in the meeting house, coffee plants stretching away down the valley.
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Further information: For information on visiting Indonesia see the Visit Indonesia website at indonesia-tourism.com
Winston Aldworth visited Indonesia as guest of the Indonesian Government.
