The Coffee Lady of Bali

High on the South slopes of Mount Batukaru –is the village of Wangaya Gede. It is here that “Uwe Teg” (Auntie Teg) has her home. “Janda Uwe” (a widow) harvests small crops of coffee beans and coco (chocolate) nuts on these mountain slopes between the temple at the top and the village, about ½ a mile beneath the volcano’s inactive dome.

In a good year, her coffee trees bear up to 100 kilos of beans (about 200 pounds). Uwe and her son hand pick the beans each day as soon as the berries begin to turn red, and continue to pick until the annual crop is harvested. The coffee is organically grown; no insecticides or chemicals are applied to the trees or the soil.
This coffee is not the generally known species of Arabica or Robusta, which were planted throughout sub Asia by the pioneering settlers from the West. These trees on her land produce BALI coffee beans. A smaller bean and more aromatic of taste then the much more widely known varieties.
Memory fails when the locals are asked as to the origin of the trees. Best reply to my question is...’well…, they have always been here’… The altitude of the volcano; the soil and the amount of rain seem to be all “just right” for the production of a gourmet bean. Perhaps the Hindu Gods smile on Uwe and her neighbors.
The beans are spread under the sun each day to dry. The drying process takes up to 1 year to complete. She believes that the natural flavor of the coffee is improving by the lengthy sun dry process. When the bean is grey-brown, Uwe decides that the time has come to pound each bean in a stone mortar. Her pestle is a rounded wood bludgeon that fits the stone opening. She pounds away at the collected crop until the outer husks have fallen away. The chaff is sifted into the wind in the same ways of rice harvesting. The “clean” beans are then sacked for sale or gifts to relatives and friends.
Each time I go to the Hindu ceremonies in the Batukaru temple or to visit friends in this lovely village, I pay Uwe a visit. While there, she cooks some of her coffee for me. COOKS — not roasts as you may see on a TV ad or in a coffee shop. Her raw beans are poured into an aged and blackened steel wok with no oils or additives.
Her kitchen is a small place with a stone hearth. Beneath the stone is a fire pit where scraps of wood are kindled for her cooking. Two small circles are cut into the stone to allow the flames of the fire to contact the wok or pans. The walls and floor of her kitchen
are carbon blackened from years of use.
Ventilation is from a small window on the right side of the hearth; but does little good when a wood fire is roaring. Smoke saturates the room down to about 3 feet from the floor. Uwe sits at the hearth stirring the beans as they cook. She can tell by years of experience when the beans are cooked and ready. When she feels the beans are finished, she takes the wok from the fire by the handles – using pieces of news print as an insulator. The cooked coffee is poured into a flat wicker tray to cool.
The last act in Uwe’s coffee cooking is to toss the coffee in the tray in a side shaking motion. This allows the cooked husks of the beans which did not separate in the pounding to separate and not be included with the cooked beans. NOW the coffee is ready for grinding into a size of choice and - brew a cup of REAL Bali coffee. The aroma and taste is truly exceptional & unlike any other. It is THIS Bali coffee grown up on the volcano sides that some ‘gourmet coffee experts’ claimed was the ‘best in the world’. That opinion caused a price spike to about $150. a kilo; almost over night.
(Larry McKenna, happycatproductions@earthlink.net)