There is one type of very rare, expensive coffee called Kopi Luwak that has some connoisseurs turning their heads. The next time you say that a cheap cup of java tastes like crap you probably won't be talking about Kopi Luwak, but actually that wouldn't be far from the truth. That's because Kopi Luwak is made from the digested, and excreted coffee beans deposited on the jungle floor by the Luwak, a small, "cat like", marsupial also known as the parodoxurus, or common palm civit resident in Indonesia. These animals climb the coffee trees, and eat only the ripest coffee cherries. In the process of digesting an outer shell the inner coffee bean remains intact, and apparently the enzymes in the civit's stomach add extra flavor to the bean through fermentation. The resulting coffee or "poopachino" purportedly has a heavy body, and a strong, musty (?something to do with anal gland secretions), caramel taste with a complex and unusual flavor. At prices of up to $300 U.S. per pound you probably won't see it on the shelves at your local grocery store any time soon, but a few commercial coffee shops are starting to take notice.
The Luwaks used to be considered a nuisance or pest in Indonesia, and that put their lives at risk, so perhaps coffee production has actually helped a species survive and thrive for once. It would seem that small treasures can be found in unusual places and under strange circumstances just like picking a few beans up off the jungle floor for a cup of java. There must be secret laboratories somewhere working feverishly to chemically duplicate the civit's natural fermentation process so that cheap, similar tasting, synthetic Luwak coffee can be brewed. Coming to a Starbucks near you!
4 comments:
As a non-coffee drinker from whom the aroma of coffee can sometimes elicit something akin to wretching, the appeal of coffee is beyond me. But I wish I'd had the insight to understand its appeal and that of bottle water before the recent booms in these commodities began. Whoever did so, has done quite well financially.
Yes Mark, I guess anything that is habit forming has a tremendous market potential. Someone could certainly do an interesting post on the history, and success of bottled water sales too.
Ted, that's an amazing statistic. Perhaps success with a coffee house = addiction x marketing. You'd think that so many Starbucks within a tight radius would lead to some nasty intra-species competition, but I guess the demand negates that, and of course Starbucks probably has some tough, corporate policies for that kind of behavior.
"That's because Kopi Luwak is made from the digested, and excreted coffee beans deposited on the jungle floor by the Luwak, a small, "cat like", marsupial also known as the parodoxurus, or common palm civit resident in Indonesia."
Civets aren't marsupials; they're 'carnivores' in the same order as cats, dogs, skunks, sea lions and bears.
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