Visiting a coffee plantation can be exciting for people living in an urban area where pollution and noise are their daily menu, and drinking coffee is just for stimulating their brains to work harder since coffee contains caffein which is a stimulant for human body network, or commonly named nervous system, and get an energy boost.
Based on the reasons, iced robusta coffee may be your beverage choice on your relaxing moment at Kampoeng Kopi Banaran.
Kampoeng Kopi Banaran, an agro tourism owned by PT Perkebunan Nusantara IX (Nusantara Plantation Company) is on jalan Raya Semarang-Solo KM 35, Bawen (near Bawen bus station), Semarang Regency is quite popular and visited by many people during weekend and holidays. And explore the mixed plantation of coffee, cacao, nutmeg, rubber trees and fruit trees is exciting.
Indonesia, along with Malaysia, is the leading rubber producer. While i was exploring this plantation, I met a worker named "mas Sahroni" collecting latex (sticky and milky fluid from "rubber tree), he told me that one of the purpose from the existence of Kampoeng Kopi Banaran was to educate people with plantation trees.
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| Latex being collected |
Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Brazil, which have ideal conditions for growing cacao trees, are the biggest cacao beans producers in the world. The process from cacao seeds to be a nice cup of hot chocolate needs long effort. Start from harvesting, cleaning, drying, grinding and they are mixed together with butter to form cocoa butter. The dried cocoa butter or chocolate powder used for baking and drinking. Here you can see the tree and its fruits.
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| a cacao tree |
Robusta coffee, although its taste isn't as good as Arabica coffee for it has more caffeine with carry a bitter taste, reminds me to the past memory when I first settled in Salatiga, during coffee blossom I could see white flowers everywhere (now I see many housing complex instead) and produced fragrance.
Kampoeng Kopi Banaran provides a train-shaped car to take you go around coffee trees. You pay at IDR 70k (fit for 5 adults). The train will stop in the middle of coffee plantation where you can have chance to take some pictures.
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| coffee blossom |
Banaran train tour
Relaxing
My wife and I finally found an empty gazebo where we could have lunch. We ordered some foods and drinks. I felt hot so I ordered iced coffee instead of hot coffee. And after slurping the coffee, it tasted sweet, bitter and cold, It decreased my body temperature, so I didn't feel hot anymore.
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| orange juice, iced coffee, black beef soup(rawon) and milk fish crispy. |
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| Stuffed tofus and casava fritters |