A
recent article on Damn Interesting reminded me of something I'd
somehow managed to forget about: civet coffee. The animal you see here is a civet and Civet coffee or Kopi Luwak is
made from coffee beans that these little guys eat and excrete. Yep, that's civet poo in your brew. Well, not really.
It's supposedly washed before roasting.And it ain't cheap, either. You can find it at Edible.com for about $20 per ounce. According to Edible, civet coffee has "a rich chocolate like flavour and no aftertaste." Also, it the beans get partially fermented as they pass through the digestive systems of these little Sumatran tree shrews, lending the cup an even more distinctive flavor.
According to DI, the majority of the 500 pounds of Kopi Luwak harvested each year is sold in Japan.
USA Today also reported on civet coffee a few years back in an articled entitled "Civet coffee: good to the last dropping." I wish I'd thought of that one.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-12-2006 @ 8:18PM
lear said...
How can you mention Kopi Luwack andnot mention the almsot equally gross coffee that edible carries.
Weasel Coffee.
"Wild Weasels roam the coffee plantations and eat the ripe coffee beans, but rather than digest them the weasel regurgitates them and vomits them up! "
Yum!
http://www.edible.com/htmlsite/prod_list.asp?prodID=232&catID=2
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1-13-2006 @ 12:39AM
Phil said...
I had sampled weasel coffee in Ho Chi Minh city. It was so good, I bought a kilo to bring home with me. Cost there was about $10 for 500g. I love offering someone a cup, then explaining the coffee after they've had their first sip.
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1-13-2006 @ 1:55PM
FJK said...
This was all over Vietnam, big thing for tourists to buy. As it was explained to us, not all civet or weasel coffee has actually been processed by actual civets or weasels. Not sure if that means it is mostly a scam or if chemicals or, um, natural civet by products, are applied in some other way to process the beans.
Vietnamese coffee is v.g. even without the civet component.
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10-12-2006 @ 11:01PM
Koswara S.A. said...
I would like to offer you the original beans of kopi luwak that collected from our coffee plantations in Sumatra Island, Indonesia. Kopi Luwak that I offering to you is still in unripe/undried beans of kopi luwak, it's keep the original of the kopi luwak. The price is $42.00 per kilo (1 kilo = 1000 grams) in undried beans, in Green Beans $55.00 per kilo. the price above is not included the delivery cost to your country. If you interested with my offer, you can contact me at ks_aj@lycos.com.
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3-08-2008 @ 6:15AM
jebu said...
I have some civet coffee,from the local southindian type civet,for sale in india only, in the original droppings form.CostRS.10/per gram.
thankyou
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