Salento - photos 2

Salento - coffee plantation

We went to visit the coffee plantation of Don Elias, a nice old man who is in charge of 5000 coffee trees. He was very happy to show us all the coffee process, from the collection of the beans up to the taste of his coffee. The plantation was ~1hr walk in a nice trail with superb landscape.

- Don Elias is collecting the coffee beans. The coffee trees can live up to 30 years and can grow up to 3m,
- The coffee beans. The yellow ones are from the Colombian type, the red ones are from the Arabica variety,
- Don Elias was using a machine to separate the bean from the shell. The beans will be then washed several times to remove any debris then will be put to dry. The shells are collected and used to make compost. Don Elias produces organic coffee,
- Once dried, the beans are fried in a pan until obtaining the characteristic brown colour. The coffee flavour is starting to appear at this moment. This is a macro photo taken with my camera. As I said previously, since I knew I could use this function, I am all the time taking macro photos!
- Then using this coffee grinder, here we are! With this ground coffee, Don Elias prepared us a nice cup a coffee with a unique taste! Many thanks to Don Elias for his hospitality!!!