When we left the Monkey Forest a man approached us and asked where we were going next. We talked for a bit about where we should go next and he convinced us we should go check out the coffee plantation - There are several here on the island, but the one he suggested was a little known plantation called Ubud Mesari. He gave us directions which included going the wrong way down a one way street- "it's okay you have scooter, it's okay"- and off we went (following the guidance of our GPS.)
We were coming to a small bamboo stand on the side of the road when a woman came out and said hello we pulled over and Grant asked this was the coffee plantation. Truth be told it didn't look like much of anything, but she assured us it was and she guided us into the jungle, once we entered the tree line there was a small trail and-as she pointed out- coffee plants everywhere. As we followed he down the trail we stopped at some cages with two sleeping palm civet. Palm Civets are the key to the regions famous and most expensive coffee. These little guys which seem to be closer to a raccoon than a monkey are nocturnal at night they roam the plantation picking and eating the ripest and best coffee berries. one might think this would be a hindrance to production but actually the beans are harvested from the Civets poo. It's then washed and processed and roasted and ground. After we finished our tour we had a tasting. A delicious 15 sampler platter of teas and coffees. It was easily one of the best things to do in Ubud.
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