Random Monday: POOP COFFEE

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Jen

When I’m researching for a project, I often end up stumbling into information that has exactly nothing to do with whatever I was originally researching.  It’s an education of the most haphazard variety, and it is both the joy and the eternal time suck of writing.

Recently—and I really wish I could remember what website trail led me to make this discovery—I learned about the world’s most expensive coffee.  That alone would be intriguing enough, but get this—it’s made from the poo of this animal:

For realz.  This little Asian Palm Civet—which lives in Indonesia and, yes, is absurdly cute—eats up coffee berries, and then defecates them… at which point everything stays in the same shape as the original berry.  Workers gather up the teeny-tiny poops, clean them (I choose to believe they spend a lot of time on the cleaning), and then dry/roast/grind/whatever to turn them into the world’s most expensive coffee.  In the United States, the Kopi Luwak coffee (for that is what it is called) goes for anywhere from $100 to $600 a pound.  You can even buy it on Amazon.  Supposedly the beans are only given a very light roast so as to retain and enhance the coffee’s very unique flavor.

You know, the unique flavor… OF TINY ANIMAL POO.

Anyway, I have taken two things from this remarkable and educational finding:

  1. I want an Asian Palm Civet.  Not only are they ridiculously adorable, but cleaning its cage would become a financial opportunity.
  2. If life hands you shit… make coffee.

Thank you!  Tip your waitress!  Try the fish!  I’ll be here all week!

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  • Scottfxx

    Often times we humans have a tendency to perceive ourselves as the ubermensch, what with our leisure suits, space travel and Lords of Acid remixes, to such a great extent that we forget that we defecate, vomit, and roll ourselves into ridiculous, sweaty, grunting juxtapositions for sex, proving that we are still merely animals; highly successful to be sure, but still, animals. But the best joke of all is that somewhere along the way we decided that eating nearly hatched duck eggs (Balut), maggotty cheese (formaggio marcio) and live octopi that can actually kill you on the way to your stomach and the aformentioned cat poop coffee, are the height of haute cuisine. Amazing. I don’t know who played the joke but I suspect a cadre of farm animals, watching from a field and laughing hysterically when we aren’t driving by them yelling ‘MOO!” out the car window.

    • Anonymous

      For the record, I am against eating all the things you mention. :)

      Lords of Acid!

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