This story is not for the squeamish. It concerns the origins of the most expensive coffee on Earth. Thought maggot cheese was bad? You ain't seen nothing yet.
Which brings me to the picture above. You're looking at the best coffeemaker in the world. No, it's not a particularly talented weasel. It's a civet, and it lives in Indonesia.
At night, civets invade the country's coffee plantations, stealing the fruit straight off the bushes. They eat the fleshy outer part and swallow the bean inside. As the coffee beans pass through the animal's digestive system, they undergo a remarkable transformation. The juices in the civet's stomach remove all the bitterness from the coffee. When the beans finally leave they animal's body (yeah, you know what I'm talking about), they're said to be exceptionally mild and delicious.
Indonesians gather the beans from the civets' droppings, and sell them for $600 a pound. Just one cup of kopi luwak (as it's called in Indonesia) can cost $30.
Delicious!
Read more here.
16 comments:
I'm never going to drink coffee.
Ever.
I wonder where I can buy some! (JK)
I'll stick with the english and drink tea. maybe the colonies DIDN'T dump TEA into the water. Maybe it was THIS STUFF!
I take it they clean the beans before selling them?
I'm sure they do. But I don't think they could possibly clean them enough for me. Call me crazy.
But isn't the animal just ADORABLE?
Kirsten, I want my copy of The Empress's Tomb signed! Can I send it to the return address of the T.O.A package thingy?
I'll have tea, too. Don't tell Kiki, or she won't drink cafe-au-lait, and she'll be stuck on gruel and vitamins.
I will have tea-au-lait! Then I'll be half Kiki Strike and half English.
Anonymous, I'm sure they wouldn't dump it at 30$ a cup. I'm positive that the poor colonists would sell it on the black market for mucho-money. They would then use that money to buy off the British. This would lead for a sooner independance. Thus leading into a quicker industrialized America. This would cause us to already be fivty years into the future tech-wise.
No, coffee made of that stuff won't sell on the black market.
Don't ask how I know :)
How do you know? ;)
ok Lena, you totally smashed my theory to smitherines. Good plan,though, o and i loved your story! It was awesome. Great job!
Yum, civet coffee! jk
HIDE KIKI! You know Kirsten I am so glad Kiki can have (SOME types) of coffee. A world without chocolate AND coffee would just be horrible. You should wright a book of just guids
all right so how did I miss this post I wonder?? YOU COULD NEVER TARNISH MY LOVE FOR COFFEE....EVER!!?!
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