Coffee Is A Fruit!

Yesterday morning started off differently than any other morning in the last several years. You wanna know what I did? I woke up and got in the shower. Then I got dressed and put some make-up on. Um, who am I? I can't remember the last time I showered first thing in the morning?

Truth be told, the thought of having a cool job again made me smile and I was quite excited about the adventure ahead.

Anyway, my flight for Molokai left right on time at 7:45 and landed on Molokai at 8:06. Short and sweet. That's how all flights should be. Maria was there to pick me up- she is the plantation manager out at Coffees Of Hawaii and is awesome. Right away she took me out to the fields to tour their plantation. And guess what? We didn't encounter a single stop light on our way there. You know why? Because there are NO STOP LIGHTS on Moloka'i. Seriously. I totally have to go back there with my bike.

Anyway...

Did you know that coffee is a fruit? See? Totally counts as a fruit serving for breakfast. ;)

I don't know that I'd ever really seen coffee cherries growing on the trees before. When they're ripe they're red and you can actually eat them. Seriously, I ate one! Not the raw seed of course, which is actually the coffee bean...

Check out how beautiful this plantation is. It was so quiet and peaceful. Truly another world up there.
Anyway, the rest of the morning was spent touring the whole facility and learning how coffee is actually made. It's a long process! Lots to do to that little bean before it becomes good to brew and drink.

But once it's ready.... mmmmmm.... I learned how to 'cup' the coffee, which is apparently a very serious endeavor. There are all sorts of ways to score coffee based upon what the whole bean looks like, what it looks like when its ground, what it smells like when it's dry, what it smells like when it's wet, and of course, what it tastes like. There's a special way to slurp it and swirl it in your mouth... lots of similarities to wine tasting!

The other cool thing I got to do was go check out Kumu Farms, which is an organic farm down the road from the coffee plantation.

They grow all sorts of good stuff there! Papayas, bananas, beets, chard, arugula, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, kale, etc. And I came home with bags full of all of it! (Guess what we had for dinner tonight?)

Check this out... little papaya trees just getting their start in life...
In a couple of years they will look like this!
Clearly this was just an awesome day. If you ever have a chance to get over to Moloka'i for a day or two, it's a must see.

So as I was brewing my beans this morning, I had a much better appreciation for them. And tomorrow morning when I brew them, I'll be hoping they give me a little extra zip because it's GO FAST time on the bike! Rumor has it that another local club has put together a team of barbies to give us Pac Velo ladies a run for our money. The gauntlet has been thrown on FB and messages are flying. Lol. Stay tuned for what will surely be an interesting race report tomorrow. :)