Friday
The
kids have declared after breakfast that they are not willing to join
us for any sight seeing trip. They would rather stick to the resort
and play in the fun zone. I try for a while to change their firm
decision. My efforts turn futile and finally I give up. No kids means
their parents can not make it too. That leaves only the senior
citizens willing to go for the sight seeing. We finally decide to pay
a visit to a waterfall nearby, known as Abbey falls. Instead of usual
Genaral Cariappa square, we take another road, which goes through the
main veggie market of 'Medikeri.' This road is quite a bit of horror
as this entire stretch through town is filthy, grimy and mucky and
very much looks like a garbage dump. It is a great relief that the
stretch of the road beyond city limits again turns picturesquely
beautiful. We pass through heavily wooded areas now and the road is
mostly downhill.
Abbey
falls are located at a distance of only 4 Km from the city and there
is a large sized parking area for the vehicles. This parking lot is
also stunningly beautiful with rolling green meadows around and deep
and dark woods further in the background. From here, we start walking
on a path that goes steeply downhill. Unfortunately, both the sides
of this downhill stretch are again full of plastic garbage like empty
bottles, bags and waste paper. The path becomes narrower as we go
down further and now I can see fully grown coffee trees on both sides
of the path. A suspension bridge now comes into the view while my
ears pick up a roar, that has to be of falling water. As we move
further down, Abbey falls come into view.
'Abbey
falls' turn out to be a complete anticlimax compared to my
expectations. I have visited so far many water falls around the
world including the Niagara and Yosemite's Bridal veil fall in US. In
Karnataka state itself, there are some excellent water falls like
Gokak, Jog, Unchalli and Magode. It is hard to compare even, this
Abbey fall with any of these. I feel that it is more or less like the
water fall at 'Shivathar' near my home town Pune, with water falling
down the rocks in small steps. There is no ferocity or savage
fierceness, we normally associate with water falls. It is a
gentleman's water fall and if the surroundings are kept clean, it
could be a nice spot for picnic.
We are
back on the road again to visit a coffee plantation. I look at my
watch, which shows time as 4 o'clock in the afternoon. There are few
more families coming along with us. We pass through General Cariappa
square once again and take a curvaceous, twisty hilly road.
Travelling about 12 Km, the cars stop near the gate of a coffee
plantation. The owner of the plantation, Mr. Kiron, welcomes us at
the gate. He would be taking us around the plantation personally.
Since my knowledge about coffee beans and plants is very rudimentary,
I find the information quite interesting. Obviously, being an owner
of the plantation, Mr. Kiron, talks coffee, lives coffee, obviously
drinks coffee and knows a lot about coffee production. But first, he
shows us some rare trees, not easily found around
Avocado
Vanilla
vine with pods
Even
though I like Avocado paste with my Taco or Enchiladas ( my favourite
Mexican dishes), I did not know how a Avocado tree looks like. This
fruit looks very much like our Desi fruit of Guava, but tastes quite
different. After slowly baking Avocado fruit on burning coal
covered with cinders and ash, the pulp of this fruit tastes great. To
see an Avocado tree with fruits growing on branches is a rare site in
India at least. Mr. Kiron has one such tree in his plantation and he
shows it to us. The next rare tree is the Cinnamon tree. Even if we
crumple few leaves of this tree with our hand, we can smell the
typical scent of Cinnamon. After this, we go to see Mr. Kiron's
Vanilla vine. Vanilla plants grow Vanilla pods and the extract is
derived from the seeds. This entire process is very labourious and
time consuming and makes natural Vanilla extract one of the most
expensive plant product. For this reason, most of the essence is
produced these days from coal tar which is a residual matter, left
behind in distillation of crude oil. We turn to our main interest
now; the coffee tree. Mr. Kiron makes the whole coffee production
process appear so simple to me that at least for few minutes I feel
like an expert coffee grower.
The
mountain range in which Coorg hills are situated is known as Western
Ghats and runs parallel to the western sea board of Indian peninsula.
This range is known by different names in different regions. In the
North, near the city of Mumbai, the mountains are known as Sahyadri.
Down South, the range is known as Bramhagiri range. Coorg region is
located on the eastern slopes of this Bramhagiri range. Coorg is much
in the south, just back to back with state of Kerala.
India
produces about 300,000 metric tons of coffee beans annually. Out of
this, Coorg region alone, produces 120000 tons. Which means that
little less than half of the total coffee produced in the country is
produced here in Coorg, in scores of plantations like the one owned
by Mr. Kiron and is being shown to us. One striking feature of coffee
production of India is that almost two thirds of the production is
exported with domestic consumption little on the lower side.
Technically,
a coffee tree can grow anywhere. However, if you plant a tree in your
back yard, the chances of its bearing fruits are rather remote. Even
if the tree bears fruits, they are unlikely to have the aroma and the
fragrance. This is simply because the ripened fruit have no aroma at
all. The aroma comes from the processing and sun drying of the fruit.
In this process it absorbs the moisture from the air. For this
reason, coffee grown and processed at different locations and even at
different mean heights from sea level, have different aromas and
tastes. This is one reason for which, coffee plantations are found on
lower slopes in Coorg region and not on hill tops. Two types of
Coffee trees are now grown in India. Arabica coffee plants are
smaller and delicate. The leaves also are smaller. Greater care such
as maintaining proper soil salinity, needs to be taken for growing
Arabica plants. Compared to that, Robusta coffee trees are taller and
stronger. They require much less caring than Arabica. Precisely for
this reason, almost 60% of Indian coffee is of Rubusta type.
smaller
tree in foreground is Arabica
Coffee fruit or Cherries
Coffee
fruits look red and cherry like when they ripen. Some of the fruits
bear a single roundish seed. This seed demands higher price in the
market and is called as Peaberry. Most of the coffee fruit or cherry
bear two seeds and is sometimes called flatberry.
After
ripened fruits are picked by hand, the outer pulp is removed by two
methods. In the first method, the cherries are immersed into water
and crushed to remove the pulp. The seeds with some pulp still
attached to them, are then dried into sun. The beans produced in such
a fashion are called plantation beans in India. In other method. The
entire coffee cherry is dried in sun. While drying into sun, the
weather, moisture in the air etc. all play a part giving a distinct
aroma and taste to the coffee. Dried seeds are then graded, cleaned
and polished and then sent to the market.
Enlightened
with all this coffee talk and to be frank, a fairly exhausting walk
around Mr. Kiron’s coffee plantation, I feel obliged when Mr. Kiron
suggests that we have some coffee. Some freshly brewed coffee and
biscuits are served to us. The brew is just divine. It is surely one
of the best coffee, I have tasted for a long time. With the taste of
coffee still on my lips, we visit a green house, where, Mr. Kiron
grows Anthurium plants. He imports seedlings of this plant and
grows them. The flowers fetch a good price and are durable.
With
the coffee taste still lingering in my mouth, we return to the
resort, everyone is now thinking about going home tomorrow. We would
again travel to Bengaluru by our Innova SUV and then fly back to
Pune.
Coorg
days are over rather quickly, memories remain.
(concluded)
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