Monkey Spit Coffee, Anyone? Unusual Coffee You Won't Believe
By Marye Audet
Coffee Is Coffee, Right?
It used to be easy to make a cup of coffee. You just went to the cupboard, took out your can of Folgers ground coffee, and percolated it. You poured it, added your sugar and cream if you wanted and started working on your caffeine buzz.
Well, something happened between 1965 and now. We stopped being interested in Folgers in our cup and went looking for excitement, flavor, cutting edge coffee.
Apparently we found it.
The Palm Civet
The Palm Civet is an Asian wild cat. Just like the rest of us it has a coffee habit, but in a slightly different way. It eats the berries from the coffee plant and the seeds (beans) pass through it's system undigested. The enzymes in the stomach of the cat break down the proteins in the beans which are what cause the coffee to be bitter.
Conveniently each civet uses a particular area as a latrine so all that workers have to do is go and collect the droppings daily to get the coffee beans. Once the beans are collected they are washed and lightly roasted so as not to ruin the complex flavor of the beans, which is described as extremely chocolaty.
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for 120-600 USD per pound. It is still quite rare although some farmers have started keeping the civets in farm situations to be able to collect the beans more easily and reliably. It is produced in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and the Philippines.
Kopi Luwak Production
Barking Deer Create Coffee ,Too!
Kopi Muntjac is a coffee that is also processed by animals.
The Muntjac, or Barking Deer, is a deer found in Southeast Asia. It is one of the oldest known species of deer, and it too, creates an unusually flavored coffee. Like the civet, the deer eats the coffee berries and the beans pass, undigested through it's system and are collected in it's droppings. Unlike the civet the Barking Deer is not being farmed so the coffee is, if anything, more rare.
Formosan Rock Monkey
The Formosan Rock Monkey is coffee addicted as well. These little monkeys eat ripe coffee berries and spit out the beans. Farmers then gather the beans to roast and make into a unique and delicious brew, which sells for over 50 USD a pound and is said to taste like vanilla.
Apparently a farmer noticed one of the monkeys spitting out the beans and he decided to try to collect them and process them and see what happened.
Just Give Me the Old Fashioned Kind
I think that I will, personally, just stick with regular coffee beans with the rare foray into flavored coffee for excitement. I really like a nice strong cup of coffee in the morning when I get up but I don't think I am up for some of these more unique blends.
People Tasting Kopi Luwak
Comments
Sage-
Darn, I will have to opt out of the really COOL people one more time. Someone else can have my cup. ;)
I wonder if those monkeys are being paid peanuts!
O.k..THAT is funny
I think I will pass on your coffee suggestions for the moment altough some of the instant coffee's i have tried recently have tasted more like animal droppings than the gourmet coffee' that you describe, have fun.........jimmy
Jimmy- you really dont think any of these would touch my lips do you? EWWW
I also wrote this story last time, it was amazing they will pay so much money for this. Just a waste of money, a Columbian coffee tastes perfect for me.
CGull- link you story here! I owuld love to read it.
It has hit the streets in Sydney $50.00 for a small cup. The small cup is probably only because, that is all you will be able tolerate in your system.
I do not like or drink instant coffee, I will certainly entertain no thought of Drinking that.
Any way the cats are not being paid they are doinfg it for fun.
Marye!
What's wrong with people? Just imagine the aroma wafting from this literal cxxp. When my whole gang gets together for a holiday meal someone always seems to bring some-kind of disgusting recipe to the table which we all groan and moan over. My nephews and nieces live for the moment when they can out-gross each other....Ha! I'll be in the thick of it this year...
Thanks great HUB
regards Zsuzsy
MrMarmalade- You have seen it? Wow..I live apparently live in a sophisticate wasteland..which is fine with me....and....I wont drink instant coffee either...
Zsuzsy- See, I figure people will do anything if they think other people will think it is cool. I am trying to figure out a way to make money on horse manure.
Marye! Are you really looking for 'a get rid of horse manure' scheme??? (I don't think a specialty blended drink would go over too well but you never know) Have you tried selling your "burnt out or done cooking" pile of manure??? I did when I still had the farm. I made canvas bags that were large enough to hold enough for a small gardeners use but not too heavy so the older folk could still handle it too. I used a medium weight canvas and tied to top up with binder twine. I sold the manure for two bucks (it's been a while as I sold the farm twelve years ago) if they brought their own bags (feed bags are perfect) and filled it themselves. If we supplied the bags there was a deposit of two bucks. Labor to fill was another two dollars. People were happy to pay six bucks for good organic manure. I had a sign posted at the side of the road under Fresh brown eggs and flyers at the local Co-ops...I didn't get rich but it helped clean up the barn yardif you want more info let me know...
regards Zsuzsy
Have a great Thanksgiving Marye. Cheers :)Here is the Kopi Luwak link. http://decenturl.com/cgullworld.blogspot/kopi-luwa
Thanks.
It's madness, Marye. I don't know what happened, but it seems these days an awful lot of people suffer from ENCS -- the Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome: Pay loads for something that's either junk or costs almost nothing, simply because it's expensive and claimed to be exclusive / sophisticated!
Ok wow... Not a coffee fan, but definately don't think I'd find myself drinking these coffees! Yuck!
A friend bought some Civet coffee back for me a while back - it is meant to be great coffee - but I, and everyone else that tried it, thought it was awful, even instant coffee was better than this.
Nice hub.
I have heard of some seriously gross things that if you heard about, you would think who in their right mind would consume it, but with a fancy name and a high price tag, you'd be amazed at who would.
IT LOOKS LIKE A PAYDAY CANDY BAR.
SageSeer 4 years ago
LOL!
I saw the story about monkey spit on the Today show, if I remember correctly. Isn't it funny howpoeple can override the most grotesque food processing practices if the food or beverage is labelled "goumet"?
I bet monkey spit coffee will be all the rage in about a month!
Good article!