Hello everyone and all members of Cinnamons Cup Coffee Community, how are you guys today? May we all always be healthy and happy in carrying out all these jobs and routines. I'm back again participating in this community. This time, I want to share my story, and I hope you are interested in reading it.
Some time ago, my wife and I went for a long vacation trip. We are going to Sipirok, South Tapanuli for a family event. It was a very long journey, because I had to drive about 10 hours without a substitute driver. Even though it was a long and tiring journey, there were many fun and refreshing things along the way. We passed many hills, forests and also passed one of the largest lakes in my country and also Southeast Asia, namely Lake Toba.
As you know, it will be very tiring to drive for 10 hours. Of course, I needed a break to recharge and give my body and mind a break. I decided to take a break and drink tea at the traditional coffee shop and have a direct view of Lake Toba.
A Glass of Tea
There's nothing more relaxing than a warm cup of tea and a beautiful view. One of the nice things, almost all traditional coffee shops on this lakeside use local tea, which comes from tea plantations in Siantar, North Sumatra. In contrast to the tradition of drinking tea in England using a beautiful cup, or drinking tea in China using a small bowl. At my place, we are used to drinking tea using one big glass. The size of this cup is about 300 ml (or twice the size of a normal cup), and we always drink tea with sugar.
If you order tea in Indonesia, you will definitely get a sweet tea. I once had a friend from Japan, when I was in high school. He is a student who took part in a student exchange to Indonesia. He was confused, why all tea in Indonesia tastes sweet, and we told him if you want to order original tea, you have to order bitter tea.
There are few benefits when getting drinks with sugar content, especially when we are in need of energy. I drank one glass of this sweet tea slowly, while looking at the lake and this beautiful view. In the past, when I worked at a Non-Government Organization, I had an idealism to never stop at a food stall or coffee shop on the edge of Lake Toba. For me, if I stop by here, it's like I support the destruction of forests and ecosystems around Lake Toba. But somehow, as I got older and started to think how naive I was then. I don't think there's anything wrong with local people taking a little profit by making coffee pots.
Monkey Arrival
While we were eating and chatting, suddenly some monkeys came to our table. These monkeys seem to have come from the forest on the edge of the lake. I got a message from the coffee shop owner not to feed the monkey.
According to the owner of the coffee shop, once a customer gave food to one monkey and finally nearly thirty monkeys came to him asking for food. Three monkeys came to our table. At first only one came, and ended with the arrival of two more monkeys. These monkeys look for anything that can be eaten, unfortunately even though monkeys are intelligent animals, they are still equipped with limitations to eat using a bowl.
Maybe this is an irony, all these monkeys come to this coffee shop because maybe their habitat is disturbed by humans. Humans come and destroy the forest on the outskirts of Lake Toba and the surrounding forest so that these monkeys come looking for food anywhere. Perhaps, there needs to be a study about the influence of the existence of all these coffee shops on the shores of Lake Toba with the ecosystem and the surrounding environment.
Thank you for reading my story and see you in my next posts and stories.
Call me Isdarmady, because I have a full name that is very long, namely Isdarmady Syahputra Ritonga. I am a head of the family who work as Farmers Vegetables Hydroponic and Consultant Hydroponics, sometimes I also sell coffee from various regions in Indonesia.
I have expertise dispensing coffee with a variety of techniques and tools brewing, because I have the desire to make a coffee shop with hydroponics as centerpieces. Help me realize that dream.
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