Sunday, September 4th, 2011
Coffee in Melbourne is everywhere. Outdoor tables line so many streets, armed with heaters for the winter and umbrellas for the summer. Even mid week you will see many people sitting outside enjoying a morning coffee or the famous Melbourne brunch! I’ve tried my best to fight it, but recently I’m finding it hard to avoid the caffeine craving that hits every morning…Nescafé doesn’t seem to hit the spot anymore!
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Posted by lainer in Melbourne, iphoto 
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
After Medellin, we headed to Salento by bus to stay in the Plantation House hostel. This small town is in the coffee region of Colombia with another totally new landscape. The next day, we got a jeep from the square to take us to Valle de Cocora, where we did a four hour walk. There was some beautiful scenery, especially the wax palms we saw on the way back.
The following afternoon, we did a tour of the coffee plantation belonging to the English owner of the hostel. He showed us the different types of coffee plants – Robusta and Arabica. The coffee beans are red when they are picked first and then put through a grinding process and then fall into a vat of water. Grade 2 beans float to the top and grade 1 beans stay at the bottom. These are then dried out in the sun or in the oven. After we got to taste the coffee (really good – no need for sugar or milk) we walked around the plantation before seeing a great sunset on the way home.
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