Thursday, June 19, 2008

Coffee

Julian, the owner of the coffee farm, took us into town to see the coffee processing plant, the place where the coffee is delivered sorted, packaged and shipped. ¨Somos muy profesionales,¨ Julian explained. ¨Somos expertos en el cafe.¨ The process is impressively high-tech. After the farmers bring their coffee to the central plant it´s sorted by size, weight and color. This is mostly done by machine, but when the plant gets a superb batch of coffee it is sorted by the hands of thirty women.
After wathcing the coffee get sorted and packed we went to the quality control room for a lesson in coffee tasting, which is highly sophisticated. It´s done like wine, slurping, swirling and spitting. After watching an expert demonstration I felt ready to try. On the first taste I sent coffee shooting straight up my nose and down my throat. While I was clutching my throat coffee was dribbling down my chin and Julian yells out, ¨We need napkins!¨









2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see a "flavor wheel of cheese" diagram. Or at least see that as a puzzle on wheel of fortune.

Anonymous said...

So, when you go wine tasting you really spit it out? How silly is that? I always drink the whole thing. This could be why I never get past 4 wineries in any given day. I'm asleep by the time we head out of the 4th one!