Sunday, November 11, 2007

I Think I'll Have Tea, Thanks





This story is not for the squeamish. It concerns the origins of the most expensive coffee on Earth. Thought maggot cheese was bad? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Which brings me to the picture above. You're looking at the best coffeemaker in the world. No, it's not a particularly talented weasel. It's a civet, and it lives in Indonesia.

At night, civets invade the country's coffee plantations, stealing the fruit straight off the bushes. They eat the fleshy outer part and swallow the bean inside. As the coffee beans pass through the animal's digestive system, they undergo a remarkable transformation. The juices in the civet's stomach remove all the bitterness from the coffee. When the beans finally leave they animal's body (yeah, you know what I'm talking about), they're said to be exceptionally mild and delicious.

Indonesians gather the beans from the civets' droppings, and sell them for $600 a pound. Just one cup of kopi luwak (as it's called in Indonesia) can cost $30.

Delicious!

Read more here.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm never going to drink coffee.

Ever.

11:59 AM  
Blogger Spring said...

I wonder where I can buy some! (JK)

12:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll stick with the english and drink tea. maybe the colonies DIDN'T dump TEA into the water. Maybe it was THIS STUFF!

2:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I take it they clean the beans before selling them?

2:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sure they do. But I don't think they could possibly clean them enough for me. Call me crazy.

2:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But isn't the animal just ADORABLE?

5:01 PM  
Blogger Spring said...

Kirsten, I want my copy of The Empress's Tomb signed! Can I send it to the return address of the T.O.A package thingy?

9:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll have tea, too. Don't tell Kiki, or she won't drink cafe-au-lait, and she'll be stuck on gruel and vitamins.

9:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will have tea-au-lait! Then I'll be half Kiki Strike and half English.

9:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous, I'm sure they wouldn't dump it at 30$ a cup. I'm positive that the poor colonists would sell it on the black market for mucho-money. They would then use that money to buy off the British. This would lead for a sooner independance. Thus leading into a quicker industrialized America. This would cause us to already be fivty years into the future tech-wise.

6:20 PM  
Blogger International Mastermind said...

No, coffee made of that stuff won't sell on the black market.

Don't ask how I know :)

7:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How do you know? ;)

7:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ok Lena, you totally smashed my theory to smitherines. Good plan,though, o and i loved your story! It was awesome. Great job!

10:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yum, civet coffee! jk

5:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HIDE KIKI! You know Kirsten I am so glad Kiki can have (SOME types) of coffee. A world without chocolate AND coffee would just be horrible. You should wright a book of just guids

4:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

all right so how did I miss this post I wonder?? YOU COULD NEVER TARNISH MY LOVE FOR COFFEE....EVER!!?!

6:26 PM  

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