Selva Negra: unforgettable pristine cloud forest

The corroded, abandoned army tank at Selva Negra Mountain Resort’s entrance is the only noticeable remnant of the northern interior’s violent past.  At the Bavarian-style gatehouse, the guard confers with my driver and lifts the red and white striped bar consenting steep passageway to the 850-hectare estate.

Soon I’m bumping along nut-brown dirt roads of the estate’s seed-to-cup tour to learn how coffee has been planted, grown and manufactured here since 1891.  Stiff from exploring the plantation and climbing its lush jungle trails, I repose under a portico along Selva Negra’s lakeshore.  The cloud forest takes on its name in the form of hazy fog.   Low-hanging clouds hover around the upper canopy of the mossy forest before condensing on leaves and dripping onto the coffee plants and lake.

A waiter brings me a steel carafe of coffee; product of the high altitude and nutrient-rich soil I spent the day enveloping.  I pour it into a white demitasse cup and saucer.  I drink it black.  Long fermented with tasting notes of blackberry, wine, milk chocolate and honey.   I don’t want that cup to end or for the day to come to a close.