$600-a-pound coffee

[snopes]

To anyone satisfied by a regular cup of joe with the morning newspaper, it might sound like a lot of hokum. Canadian food scientist Massimo Marcone thought kopi luwak was just an urban legend. Then he did some lab work.

He found that a civet's digestive system does indeed remove some of the caffeine, which explains why a cup of kopi luwak doesn't have the kick that other strong coffees do. The civet's enzymes also reduce proteins that make coffee bitter.

http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-coffee1...,2098980.story

[Don Enrico]

$600 for a pound of coffee that has less caffeine than normal coffee? Why would I want that?

Don "caffeine addict" Enrico

It would go great with this.

HT

[snopes]

A rare type of coffee made from the droppings of the civet cat is wowing coffee connoisseurs around the world.

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/vid...videoChannel=4

[ganzfeld]

I don't call it coffee after it's been processed in another animal's digestive system.

[ganzfeld]

This makes me think of Cheech & Chong sitting in a Starbucks... "What the hell is this ****, man? This is some good ****..."

[llewtrah]

You can get small amounts of civit coffee from some zoo gift shops. I found some at Colchester Zoo. I couldn't afford it though.

Originally Posted by snopes

A rare type of coffee made from the droppings of the civet cat is wowing coffee connoisseurs around the world.

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/vid...videoChannel=4

If you give me about half an hour I can supply a donut to go with that.

HT

[lynnejanet]

They sell it at Pusateri's in Toronto for $485 a pound. It's kept in a locked fridge with the caviar.

I've always wondered how they can guarantee the provenance of such coffee. how do you know you are getting the real thing? I also wonder how fresh it is. I doubt they're selling enough of it to have much turn-over.

[James G]

From Firebox:
http://www.firebox.com/product/1077?...&src_id=coffee

£22.95 Approx. €34.10 or US$46.00 for 57g / 2oz of Civet Coffee (They've been selling it for a while)

Or the cheaper 'weasel coffee'
http://www.firebox.com/product/616?s...&src_id=coffee
£15.95 Approx. €23.70 or US$31.90 for 57g / 2oz.

[Horse Chestnut]

I can has coffee?

[Jelly Bean Queen]

Horse Chestnut

YOMANK!

What I want to know is what motivated the first person who picked up the civit poop to decide it would be a good idea to give these beans another run through?

[major accent]

Originally Posted by Jelly Bean Queen

Horse Chestnut

YOMANK!

What I want to know is what motivated the first person who picked up the civit poop to decide it would be a good idea to give these beans another run through?

Curiosity, I suppose. This is something I think about when eating blue cheese...

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Jelly Bean Queen

What I want to know is what motivated the first person who picked up the civit poop to decide it would be a good idea to give these beans another run through?

Oh that's easy. We caffeine addicts will do anything to get our stash back.

[snopes]

Is civet coffee considered to be vegan?

- snopes

[RLS]

Since it is not harming the civet, it must be vegan

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by RLS

Since it is not harming the civet, it must be vegan

Not all vegans eat honey. So I wouldn't be so sure.

[missy_pooh_1997]

Does this make anybody else think of that scene in the 2cd Austin Powers when he asked if the coffee tatses like sh*t,b/c it was fat bastards "sample"?

[Ezri]

My sister is a vegan and she drinks coffee. When asked if she would drink this particular kind of coffee she said "No cause that's nasty" but went on to say, "As long as they aren't keeping the Civet captive to collect it's poop for the coffee, then it would be considered vegan." She's been vegan for about 2 years now, she might be wrong but that's what she said.

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Ezri

My sister [...] "As long as they aren't keeping the Civet captive to collect it's poop for the coffee, then it would be considered vegan." She's been vegan for about 2 years now, she might be wrong but that's what she said.

I was going to write "How exactly would that work??" but it turns out that the poo used to be collected from wild civets. These days, the beans are mostly taken from captive civets, according to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak