We had a driveway moment listening to food scientist Massimo Marcone on Fresh Air. Marcone is a food scientist who travels the world, investigating bizarre foods.
One of these is kopi luwak, an extremely rare coffee from Indonesia. It's made from coffee cherries eaten and then excreted by the Asian Palm Civet. The waste is carefully collected and roasted and sold for up to $600 a pound. The civet's digestive system supposedly removes some of the bitter compounds from the beans, resulting a sweeter coffee.
As devoted coffee-drinkers we were fascinated and also repelled. What do you think? If you'd like to see the coffee in its, er, semi-processed state, pics after the jump...
Some of the guys in my coffee buying club say it is great, esp. after you tell your victi... uh... friends what they are drinking. The cost of the bean is not quite as high as that when you buy it green, but we all know that most of the markup on coffee happens at the roaster...
view samaritan's profile
I saw a segment on coffee on Sunday Morning where the reporter tasted several different kinds, including this one. He said "It tastes like......coffee!" In other words, nothing special. But clearly this is for extremely refined tastes, like those who would be part of a coffee club.
view Rog's profile
On a related topic, does anyone know where to get unroasted beans? I've read they're not hard to roast yourself, and wouldn't mind giving it a shot.
view nycflatcats's profile
A really good friend(?) gave me a beautiful gift package of this coffee for a birthday a couple of years ago and I have to say it was a very smooth tasting coffeee with no bitterness at all, in fact a friend who cannot drink coffee without cream drank it black and she could not believe how good it tasted.
So thank's Tom for a great gift I would have always wondered what this coffee tasted like, now I know!
view iclight's profile
I'd probably "pass" this one up. Looks like a Payday.
view art's profile
Those civets must be WIRED!
view Jon_B's profile
My husband and I were able to buy some from the Philippines where it is called "kape alamid" (alamid is Tagalog for civet) at $20 per 100g bottle. We served it to our friends and they all loved it. It has no bitter taste. Since it is more expensive that regular coffee, we just save it for "special" occassions.
view aele's profile
that cannot possibly be kosher.
*shudder*
(nor vegan)
view jillrenee from boston's profile
The cat and I are just now discussing whether she'd accept green coffee beans as a supplement to her diet... I sense a cash crop in the litter box.
view wende in the twin cities's profile
nycflatcats:
A little late, but you know what they say. The coffee buying club is actually for green (raw) coffee beans for home or small scale roasting. There are many places to fine green coffee, but I would start with sweetmarias.com. They have the coffee and are known for the most comprehensive collection of home-roasting info.
view samaritan's profile