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Coffee from Guatemala
In Guatemala coffee grows in the heart of what was once the center of the Great Mayan Civilization. The Maya ruled this region of Central America from around 2500 B.C. until the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in mid 1500 A.D. Coffee arrived in...
Gourmet Coffee Stops Decrease Gas Mileage – Home Brew Tastes Better, Costs Less
Copyright © 2005 http://TastesOfTheWorld.net A researcher has stirred up the commuter coffee mug with the suggestion that morning rush hour traffic is worsened by stops for daily morning gourmet coffee at Starbucks and other premium coffee...
Live the Life of a Civil War Soldier when You Drink your Mornin' Coffee
Live the Life of a Civil War Soldier When you Drink your Mornin’ Coffee by Paula McCoach The Coffee Customer Spoiler Civil War soldiers, Confederate and Union, used to make their coffee in pots. But on the march, they just used their boilers....
New England Coffee
In 1607 The London Company sent 105 adventurous employees to the New World and the founding American colony of Jamestown was created. In New England coffee would not appear until around 1660. The coffee craze of the 1700’s was well underway in...
World's Most Bizarre Specialty Coffee
Anyone who lives in a big city these days has seen first-hand the proliferation of 4-dollar-a-shot coffee shops. Thanks to Starbucks and their like coffee has become the number 2 commodity in the world (petroleum is number 1). Grown in dozens of...
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World's Most Bizarre Specialty Coffee
Anyone who lives in a big city these days has seen first-hand the proliferation of 4-dollar-a-shot coffee shops. Thanks to Starbucks and their like coffee has become the number 2 commodity in the world (petroleum is number 1).
Grown in dozens of countries world wide the coffee 'bean' is actually the pit of a coffee 'cherry'. In normal circumstances the cherries are picked at the peak of ripeness and once the outer fruit is removed the coffee bean is ready for roasting, grinding and transporting to your local café.
However, there are three small islands in the Indonesian Archipelago called Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi where this process takes a bizarre twist. You see coffee is coveted by not only by us humans but a local creature called a
Palm Civet. The Palm Civet is a tree dwelling marsupial with a particular fondness for the local variety of coffee cherries.
Of course, these cat-sized coffee aficionados don't have the time to peal the cherries and eat just the fruit, so they swallow them whole. Well guess what comes out the other end? Yes that's right, a non-digested, semi-fermented coffee bean.
It started as a way for locals who weren't brave enough, or too lazy to climb the coffee trees, to have coffee too (mind you some bravery is required to sift through
mountains of Civet droppings for coffee beans!).
Through the magic of international trade what was once a source of free coffee beans for impoverished locals turned into the most expensive beverage in the world. It is marketed as a coffee variety called "Kopi luwak". Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and luwak is their name for the coffee eating Civet.
Kopi luwak sells for a whopping $75 a pound and it is estimated that the worldwide annual production is only about 500 pounds. Japan is the largest importer of this specialty coffee and it is now available in the United States and many other countries as well.
The flavor of the coffee is described as complex and very rich. This special flavor is attributed to the natural fermentation process that occurs as the beans travel the length of the Civet's digestive tract.
You can be sure that you won't be finding Kopi luwak for sale at your local Starbucks any time soon but if you are ever in a café and you notice the daily special is "Kopi luwak" and is going for $5 a cup, how could you not give it a try?
About the Author
Jon Symons is a coffee lover and writes about specialty coffee for http://specialty-coffee.oftheday.ca.
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