August 21, 2011

The Most Expensive Coffee in the World

It was in 2006 that I first heard about it.  My coworker, Jonathan, told me that there was a variety of coffee that was made from the excrement of monkeys.

"That's nasty," I remember telling him.

How could anyone in their right mind even think about drinking a beverage made from monkey shit.  I honestly barely believed him.  Over the last six years, I've become a bit of coffee connoisseur. My standards for coffee are extremely high now and I will only drink the freshest, most flavorful coffees prepared to perfection. Recently, my friend Patrick wrote a Facebook post about a coffee company called Intelligentsia, which is regarded by some as one of the best coffees in America.  This inspired me to seek out the best coffee money can buy.  Much to my surprise, I found that it was Kopi Luwak, the same variety of coffee my coworker told me about almost six years ago.

Kopi Luwak is actually not made from monkey excrement.  It is made from the excrement of the Asian Palm Civet. But, to Jonathan's credit, the civet does look a lot like a monkey.  According to Wikipedia, the civet ingests coffee cherries and the fruits' fleshy parts are digested by the animal.  What remains are the seeds which are passed through undigested.  These seeds are harvested from the animal's feces, washed, dried, roasted, ground and packaged for sale around the World.  The price for an authentic bag of Kopi Luwak can range from $100 to $600 per pound.  One maker in Vietnam sells his coffee for $3000 per pound!

But, is this coffee worth the money? I had to find out, so I tried searching online for coffee shops that brew it here in the DC metro area.  Much to my disappointment, my search turned up nothing.  So, I decided to do the next best thing, find resellers that sell it so that I could brew it myself at home.  I found a few reputable resellers online that sold the roasted whole beans, complete with a certificate of authenticity.  But, while searching I learned that the University of Florida had come up with a process of imitating the civet's digestive tract (and it's effects on the coffee cherry).  This technology has been licensed to a Gainesville Florida firm, Coffee Primero, which now produces and distributes that product at a price competitive with ordinary quality coffees.

The perfect way to try Kopi Luwak without eating shit... literally.

I decided to buy a bag for $15.99.

TO BE CONTINUED... 


2 comments:

Parth said...

What a cop out....

Vimal said...

The verdicts in! Coffee Primero is a... WINNER! Surprisingly smooth, creamy and delicious, this coffee is about as close to Kopi Luwak as your going to get without going broke in the process. So go ahead, grab yourself a bag and let me know what you think! You can leave your comments below.