Rare Indonesian coffee bean picked from civet droppings
Posted by TheShot on 01 Jan 2006 | Tagged as: Beans
Once again, the news media has exhumed stories about the ridiculous and ridiculously expensive Kopi Luwak bean: Chron.com | Rare Indonesian coffee bean picked from civet droppings. According to this latest article, we can apparently blame this foolishness on many of our money-to-burn California compatriots hard up for interesting Christmas gift ideas.
This freak show novelty appeals to the nouveau riche stereotype — i.e., those who know the price of everything but the value of nothing. Mentioned on TV a couple of years ago (including CSI-Las Vegas and The Oprah Winfrey Show — too bad those shows don’t merge, eh?), it has faded from and re-entered the vernacular of gourmet and luxury good conversations every so often like a visiting comet.
The bottom line is this: they are essentially coffee beans that have been eaten and crapped out by feral Indonesian weasels. Call it a delicacy, because it comes with a $175 per pound price tag. If I could bag my bodily functions for that premium a price, you can bet that I’d cash in and spend it all on Malabar Gold beans.
We should all hope that these will be my last words on this tedious subject. But here’s the Wikipedia entry if you’d like to know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak
UPDATE: April 3, 2007
If you thought that people drinking coffee crapped out by weasels was a problem, imagine being the Philippine government where you have to contend with locals eating all the weasels: AHN | Philippine Coffee Traders Call For The Preservation Of Civet Cats | April 3, 2007.
8 Comments »
Kopi luwak
What is kopi luwak?In a recent post I mentioned kopi luwak, the coffee that is processed in the digestive tract of a civet cat (usually Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). These animals (found in southeast Asia and related to mongooses, although they look
[...] The most embarrassing example of this is the ridiculous Kopi Luwak coffee, a favorite subject for producers of local TV news fluff pieces over the past few years. Roasted Kopi Luwak can fetch $100/lb not because of its quality, but rather because there aren’t a lot of Indonesian civets crapping out these novelties. As with many things in life, “expensive” does not always mean “better”. [...]
[...] was over a year and a half ago when we wrote here about how this was a tired, old, recycled story. For example, kopi luwak coffee was even mentioned on TV episodes of Oprah Winfrey and C.S.I. back [...]
there are a lot fake luwak coffee now days..
so be carefull dont let yourself to be a victim.
we only sell the original, best and natural civet luwak coffee.
Our coffee come from natural civet not from pet civet in the cage.
[link removed]
Fake luwak coffee?
If we’re buying an inflatable sheep as a gag novelty gift, does it really matter whether the wool is real or synthetic?
The President of Indonesia has just visited my country….Australia and gave a gift of some of this animal “coffee”……. CRAPOFFEE we call it, to our Prime Minister as a gift.How offensive to every Australian…..we gave him a hand made guitar, with his personal insignia on it. I am offended that we are given crap and is it any wonder the divide between our two peoples is so wide on a personal level.This so called CRAPOFFEE could be anything and I just hope our PM throws it down the bathroom with a good flush because that is where it belongs!
Nick Larionoff
As with all gifts, it’s the thought that counts.
Yes “shot” your point is well taken and that is just the point……”the thought that counts”. HOW much thought actually went into a gesture of gifting “coffee beans” which came out the rear end of a marsupial??
The US President will be Down Under in the next couple of weeks and we have something rare and culturally indigenous called ‘witchety grubs’.Is this something we are likely to give the PRES as a present???Not very bloody likely!
The coffee beans are not even restricted to Indonesia alone and can be found in several countries in that region with the Philippines being just one of those places and besides……there is also now a synthetic version of the ‘Crappoffee’ so what is just so special? If the “trendies” of this world want to indulge in consuming something fermented within the guts of a pest…..do we all now accept this as some sort of God given delicacy? The Chinese eat the dicks of sharks considered a rare aphrodisiac……I hope the next visit by the Chinese premier dosn’t involve the gifting of a jar of the stuff to the then PM of OZ!