I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!

http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm

Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties
have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of
rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These
coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry,
command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such
short supply, has such unique flavors and an, um, interesting background
as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price: Kopi Luwak sells
for $75 per quarter pound. Granted, that's substantially less than
marijuana, but it's still unimaginably high for coffee.

Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of
Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the
Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are
inhabited). But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these
beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."

On these Indonesian islands, there's a small marsupial called the
paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family.
Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees
eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first
thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also
digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply
lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion
process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries'
mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add
something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.

Curiously, Kopi Luwak isn't the only "specialty" food that begins this
way. Argan is an acacia-like tree that grows in Morocco and Mexico
which, through its olive-like fruit, yields argan oil. In Morocco, the
Berbers encourage goats to climb the trees to eat the fruit. They later
gather the goats' excrement and remove the pits, which they grind for
oil to be used in massage, in cooking and as an aphrodisiac.

What started as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee without
climbing the trees has since evolved into the world's priciest specialty
coffee. Japan buys the bulk of Kopi Luwak, but M.P. Mountanos
(800-229-1611), the first in the United States to bring in this exotic
bean, recently imported 110 pounds after a seven year search for a
reliable and stable supplier. "It's the rarest beverage in the world,"
Mark Mountanos says, estimating a total annual crop of less than 500
pounds.

Richard Karno, former owner of The Novel Cafe in Santa Monica,
California, got a flyer from Mountanos about Kopi Luwak and "thought it
was a joke." But Karno was intrigued, found it it was for real, and
ordered a pound for a tasting. Karno sent out releases to the local
press inviting them to a cupping. When no one responded, he roasted it
and held a cupping for himself and his employees. Karno is very
enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body. It
smells musty and jungle-like green, but it roasts up real nice. The LA
Times didn't come to our cupping, but ran a bit in their food section,
which hit the AP Wire service." And Karno and the folks at M.P.
Mountanos have been inundated with calls ever since.

Mountanos says, "It's the most complex coffee I've ever tasted,"
attributing the unusual flavors to the natural fermentation the coffee
beans undergo in the paradoxurus' digestive system. The stomach acids
and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water. Mountanos
says, "It has a little of everything pleasurable in all coffees: earthy,
musty tone, the heaviest bodied I've ever tasted. It's almost syrupy,
and the aroma is very unique." While it won't be turning up in every
neighborhood cafe any day soon, Mountanos reports that Starbucks bought
it for cuppings within the company.

In fact, most of Mountanos' customers have bought it for special
cuppings. The Coffee Critic in San Mateo, California, though,
occasionally sells Kopi Luwak to the public for $5 a cup. Owner Linda
Nederman says she keeps the price low to allow people to experience the
coffee. Nederman says that most of her people who try it are longtime
customers, and they're "game to try something different and unusual.
I've never had anybody complain, they all seem to feel it's worth the
price." Nederman drinks it herself every time they brew it. "I've never
tasted anything like it. It's an unbelieveable taste in your mouth:
richness, body, earthiness, smooth." She also carries Jamaica Blue
Mountain, Burundi Superior AA and Brazil FZA "Natural Dry," so her
customers are used to fine and exotic coffees. Still, she reports, many
are afraid to try Kopi Luwak.

Michael Beech, founding partner in Raven's Brew Coffee:
http://www.ravensbrew.com/ or email: , a roaster,
wholesaler and mail order (800-91-RAVEN) merchant in Ketchikan, Alaska,
used to sell roasted-to-order Kopi Luwak by the quarter pound ($75,
including a free t-shirt depicting the coffee-making process) but no
longer does: http://www.ravensbrew.com/NewFiles/kopiluwak.html . "It's
excellent coffee. But I always caution customers that you can't get $75
worth of quality in any coffee, there's no such thing. You're paying for
the experience of quaffing the world's rarest and most expensive coffee.
The palate would recognize it as Sumatran or Indonesian right away. It
has earthy tones of natural processed Sumatra Mandheling. It has low
acidity with a syrupy body. There's something else there, a nuance in
the flavor profile that I can't describe, and when I've challanged
others, no one else can either. It's almost alien, a tiny little flavor
note, highly exotic." The last bag he sold was to John Cleese of Monty
Python and Fierce Creatures fame.

But not everyone is seduced by this exotic coffee's charms. "Kopi Luwak
is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from many an average robusta,
especially if you cup them next to each other," says Tim Castle, coffee
expert and author of The Perfect Cup, referring to the lower grade of
commercially available coffees. "Kopi Luwak's processing is unusual and
attracts attention. In that sense, it is an interesting coffee."

Intrigued by the hype, I drove out to the Los Angeles warehouse of M.P.
Mountanos to cup some Kopi with Andrew Vournas. The green beans, which
range from tiny to elephant, have a faint smell that hints of a zoo or
stables -- a little funky, not your average coffee aroma. He lightly
roasts about 21 grams, enough beans for three cups, in a Jabez Burns two
barrel sample roaster, a rare and beautiful machine dating from the
'30s. Vournas gives the beans a light roast -- just after the second
popping -- to accentuate the specific flavors of this rare coffee; a
darker roast would obliterate the subtler flavors and replace them with
a more generic taste. Vournas points out that this coffee, like most
Indonesian-grown, has lots of moisture and roasts nicely.

Vournas gives the beans a course grind and mixes seven grams of coffee
with four ounces of water in each of three cups. The aroma is rich and
strong, and the coffee is incredibly full bodied, almost syrupy. It's
thick with a hint of chocolate, and lingers on the tongue with a long,
clean aftertaste. It's definitely one of the most interesting and
unusual cups I've ever had.

Is it worth the money? Five dollars for a single cup? Sure, why not?
You'll pay more than that in any Paris cafe for a bad au lait. Might as
well spend it on something rare and exotic.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!

Yikes! I'll stick with the Kenya AA.

In article . com>,
"Ace Berserker" > wrote:

> OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> > I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> > At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>
> Yikes! I'll stick with the Kenya AA.

I like Kona...
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

> > OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> > > I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> > > At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
> >
> > Yikes! I'll stick with the Kenya AA.
>
> I like Kona...
> --
> Peace, Om

Personally we like Community Coffee (New Orleans stuff).

However, we did received a gift of the Luwak incredibly pricey stuff didn't
like it at all! Guess it's our crummy American palet, but we were
non-appreciaters!

In article >,
"Chris Marksberry" > wrote:

> > > OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> > > > I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> > > > At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
> > >
> > > Yikes! I'll stick with the Kenya AA.
> >
> > I like Kona...
> > --
> > Peace, Om
>
> Personally we like Community Coffee (New Orleans stuff).
>
> However, we did received a gift of the Luwak incredibly pricey stuff didn't
> like it at all! Guess it's our crummy American palet, but we were
> non-appreciaters!

I'm sure the fecal content had something to do with it...
You have better taste than that.

IMHO really outrageously expensive foods are over-rated and only good
for the "snob" factor.

Caviar comes to mind...... as do really expensive champagnes.
I like Ballatore.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:


>> Personally we like Community Coffee (New Orleans stuff).
>>
>> However, we did received a gift of the Luwak incredibly pricey stuff
>> didn't
>> like it at all! Guess it's our crummy American palet, but we were
>> non-appreciaters!
>
> I'm sure the fecal content had something to do with it...
> You have better taste than that.
>
> IMHO really outrageously expensive foods are over-rated and only good
> for the "snob" factor.
>
> Caviar comes to mind...... as do really expensive champagnes.
> I like Ballatore.

I had some caviar once, when I was about 9 or 10. A wee little spoonful. I
think that was one of the major factors contributing to my vegetarianism.

LOL!!

-feverish

Chris Marksberry wrote:

>> > OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
>> > > I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
>> > > At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>> >
>> > Yikes! I'll stick with the Kenya AA.
>>
>> I like Kona...
>> --
>> Peace, Om
>
> Personally we like Community Coffee (New Orleans stuff).

Now yer talking!! That dash of chocory is the bomb! I'd live off cajun
coffee if I could. Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to come by here. Every
now and then, we'll find some and buy a bunch. And it goes fast.

I also had the great blessing to receive some coffee grown in Kenya. That
was also very very good, but it didn't have the kick that cajun coffee has.

-feverish

"OmManiPadmeOmelet" > schreef in bericht
news
>I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>
> http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm
>
> Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties
> have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of
> rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These
> coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry,
> command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such
> short supply, has such unique flavors and an, um, interesting background
> as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price: Kopi Luwak sells
> for $75 per quarter pound. Granted, that's substantially less than
> marijuana, but it's still unimaginably high for coffee.
>
> Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of
> Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the
> Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are
> inhabited). But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these
> beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."
>
> On these Indonesian islands, there's a small marsupial called the
> paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family.
> Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees
> eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first
> thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also
> digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply
> lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion
> process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries'
> mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add
> something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.
>
> Curiously, Kopi Luwak isn't the only "specialty" food that begins this
> way. Argan is an acacia-like tree that grows in Morocco and Mexico
> which, through its olive-like fruit, yields argan oil. In Morocco, the
> Berbers encourage goats to climb the trees to eat the fruit. They later
> gather the goats' excrement and remove the pits, which they grind for
> oil to be used in massage, in cooking and as an aphrodisiac.
>
> What started as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee without
> climbing the trees has since evolved into the world's priciest specialty
> coffee. Japan buys the bulk of Kopi Luwak, but M.P. Mountanos
> (800-229-1611), the first in the United States to bring in this exotic
> bean, recently imported 110 pounds after a seven year search for a
> reliable and stable supplier. "It's the rarest beverage in the world,"
> Mark Mountanos says, estimating a total annual crop of less than 500
> pounds.
>
> Richard Karno, former owner of The Novel Cafe in Santa Monica,
> California, got a flyer from Mountanos about Kopi Luwak and "thought it
> was a joke." But Karno was intrigued, found it it was for real, and
> ordered a pound for a tasting. Karno sent out releases to the local
> press inviting them to a cupping. When no one responded, he roasted it
> and held a cupping for himself and his employees. Karno is very
> enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
> tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body. It
> smells musty and jungle-like green, but it roasts up real nice. The LA
> Times didn't come to our cupping, but ran a bit in their food section,
> which hit the AP Wire service." And Karno and the folks at M.P.
> Mountanos have been inundated with calls ever since.
>
> Mountanos says, "It's the most complex coffee I've ever tasted,"
> attributing the unusual flavors to the natural fermentation the coffee
> beans undergo in the paradoxurus' digestive system. The stomach acids
> and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water. Mountanos
> says, "It has a little of everything pleasurable in all coffees: earthy,
> musty tone, the heaviest bodied I've ever tasted. It's almost syrupy,
> and the aroma is very unique." While it won't be turning up in every
> neighborhood cafe any day soon, Mountanos reports that Starbucks bought
> it for cuppings within the company.
>
> In fact, most of Mountanos' customers have bought it for special
> cuppings. The Coffee Critic in San Mateo, California, though,
> occasionally sells Kopi Luwak to the public for $5 a cup. Owner Linda
> Nederman says she keeps the price low to allow people to experience the
> coffee. Nederman says that most of her people who try it are longtime
> customers, and they're "game to try something different and unusual.
> I've never had anybody complain, they all seem to feel it's worth the
> price." Nederman drinks it herself every time they brew it. "I've never
> tasted anything like it. It's an unbelieveable taste in your mouth:
> richness, body, earthiness, smooth." She also carries Jamaica Blue
> Mountain, Burundi Superior AA and Brazil FZA "Natural Dry," so her
> customers are used to fine and exotic coffees. Still, she reports, many
> are afraid to try Kopi Luwak.
>
> Michael Beech, founding partner in Raven's Brew Coffee:
> http://www.ravensbrew.com/ or email: , a roaster,
> wholesaler and mail order (800-91-RAVEN) merchant in Ketchikan, Alaska,
> used to sell roasted-to-order Kopi Luwak by the quarter pound ($75,
> including a free t-shirt depicting the coffee-making process) but no
> longer does: http://www.ravensbrew.com/NewFiles/kopiluwak.html . "It's
> excellent coffee. But I always caution customers that you can't get $75
> worth of quality in any coffee, there's no such thing. You're paying for
> the experience of quaffing the world's rarest and most expensive coffee.
> The palate would recognize it as Sumatran or Indonesian right away. It
> has earthy tones of natural processed Sumatra Mandheling. It has low
> acidity with a syrupy body. There's something else there, a nuance in
> the flavor profile that I can't describe, and when I've challanged
> others, no one else can either. It's almost alien, a tiny little flavor
> note, highly exotic." The last bag he sold was to John Cleese of Monty
> Python and Fierce Creatures fame.
>
> But not everyone is seduced by this exotic coffee's charms. "Kopi Luwak
> is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from many an average robusta,
> especially if you cup them next to each other," says Tim Castle, coffee
> expert and author of The Perfect Cup, referring to the lower grade of
> commercially available coffees. "Kopi Luwak's processing is unusual and
> attracts attention. In that sense, it is an interesting coffee."
>
> Intrigued by the hype, I drove out to the Los Angeles warehouse of M.P.
> Mountanos to cup some Kopi with Andrew Vournas. The green beans, which
> range from tiny to elephant, have a faint smell that hints of a zoo or
> stables -- a little funky, not your average coffee aroma. He lightly
> roasts about 21 grams, enough beans for three cups, in a Jabez Burns two
> barrel sample roaster, a rare and beautiful machine dating from the
> '30s. Vournas gives the beans a light roast -- just after the second
> popping -- to accentuate the specific flavors of this rare coffee; a
> darker roast would obliterate the subtler flavors and replace them with
> a more generic taste. Vournas points out that this coffee, like most
> Indonesian-grown, has lots of moisture and roasts nicely.
>
> Vournas gives the beans a course grind and mixes seven grams of coffee
> with four ounces of water in each of three cups. The aroma is rich and
> strong, and the coffee is incredibly full bodied, almost syrupy. It's
> thick with a hint of chocolate, and lingers on the tongue with a long,
> clean aftertaste. It's definitely one of the most interesting and
> unusual cups I've ever had.
>
> Is it worth the money? Five dollars for a single cup? Sure, why not?
> You'll pay more than that in any Paris cafe for a bad au lait. Might as
> well spend it on something rare and exotic.
> --
> Peace, Om
>
> Remove _ to validate e-mails.
>
> "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack
> Nicholson

i beleive argan oil is produced using similar mehtods> I am very tempted to
try it, but the cost and my overly full pantry stopped me from buying ti
when I finally discovered a small bottle in a store recently. IIRC, the
price was 7,50 Euros for 100 ml (organic argan oil).

In article >,
"Jke" > wrote:

> "OmManiPadmeOmelet" > schreef in bericht
> news
> >I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> > At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
> >
> > http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm
> >
<snipped for space>
>
> i beleive argan oil is produced using similar mehtods> I am very tempted to
> try it, but the cost and my overly full pantry stopped me from buying ti
> when I finally discovered a small bottle in a store recently. IIRC, the
> price was 7,50 Euros for 100 ml (organic argan oil).

Please trim posts? ;-)
That one was really too long to begin with but I could not see any way
to shorten it as some people don't like to follow links...

I had to google the above:

http://www.dietobio.com/aliments/en/argan.html

but it does not look like it passes thru the digestive system of an
animal first????
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

>
> Please trim posts? ;-)

Yes, ma'am That one slipped through

> That one was really too long to begin with but I could not see any way
> to shorten it as some people don't like to follow links...
>
> I had to google the above:
>
> http://www.dietobio.com/aliments/en/argan.html
>
> but it does not look like it passes thru the digestive system of an
> animal first????
> --

I did some googling in Dutch - several sites say the nuts are "passed"
through a living goat before being pressed. If only to remove the shell,
they can't digest the actual nut, apparently. But these days, hand shelling
is done, too.

Apparently, it tastes nutty and like sweetish sesame .

My source:

http://www.meeuwig.nl/producten.html (under olie, then argan)

In article >,
"Jke" > wrote:

> > I had to google the above:
> >
> > http://www.dietobio.com/aliments/en/argan.html
> >
> > but it does not look like it passes thru the digestive system of an
> > animal first????
>
> I did some googling in Dutch - several sites say the nuts are "passed"
> through a living goat before being pressed. If only to remove the shell,
> they can't digest the actual nut, apparently. But these days, hand shelling
> is done, too.
>
> Apparently, it tastes nutty and like sweetish sesame .
>
> My source:
>
> http://www.meeuwig.nl/producten.html (under olie, then argan)

I'm adventurous when it comes to food, but I have to draw the line at
live insects, and animal excrement!

I'd have to be starving......
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

>> I did some googling in Dutch - several sites say the nuts are "passed"
>> through a living goat before being pressed. If only to remove the shell,
>> they can't digest the actual nut, apparently. But these days, hand
>> shelling
>> is done, too.
>>
>> Apparently, it tastes nutty and like sweetish sesame .
>>
>> My source:
>>
>> http://www.meeuwig.nl/producten.html (under olie, then argan)
>
> I'm adventurous when it comes to food, but I have to draw the line at
> live insects, and animal excrement!
>

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:20:51 -0500, OmManiPadmeOmelet
> wrote:

>Karno is very
>enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
>tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body

Peet's has a Sulawesi-Kalosi blend I haven't tried yet. I like
Sulawesi as a single bean. I bet Kopi Luwak is good too, but overall
Indonesian coffee is just plain *good*.

--
See return address to reply by email

In article >, sf wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:20:51 -0500, OmManiPadmeOmelet
> > wrote:
>
> >Karno is very
> >enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
> >tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body
>
> Peet's has a Sulawesi-Kalosi blend I haven't tried yet. I like
> Sulawesi as a single bean. I bet Kopi Luwak is good too, but overall
> Indonesian coffee is just plain *good*.

Hon', Luwak is animal shit...

I'd not drink it on a bet!!!!!!
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

On Sat, 28 Oct 2006 01:57:58 -0500, OmManiPadmeOmelet
> wrote:

>In article >, sf wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:20:51 -0500, OmManiPadmeOmelet
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >Karno is very
>> >enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
>> >tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body
>>
>> Peet's has a Sulawesi-Kalosi blend I haven't tried yet. I like
>> Sulawesi as a single bean. I bet Kopi Luwak is good too, but overall
>> Indonesian coffee is just plain *good*.
>
>Hon', Luwak is animal shit...
>
>I'd not drink it on a bet!!!!!!

Not exactly... although the beans did pass through an animal's
digestive track. I should have checked it out, but I didn't because I
like Indonesian coffee so much. That was a moosemeat type troll, very
good! LOL
http://www.lifeaftercoffee.com/2005/...-luwak-coffee/

--
See return address to reply by email

In article >, sf wrote:

> >Hon', Luwak is animal shit...
> >
> >I'd not drink it on a bet!!!!!!
>
> Not exactly... although the beans did pass through an animal's
> digestive track. I should have checked it out, but I didn't because I
> like Indonesian coffee so much. That was a moosemeat type troll, very
> good! LOL
> http://www.lifeaftercoffee.com/2005/...opi-luwak-coff
> ee/

Good site, thanks! :-)

While I'm sure it's safe to drink, the thought of it still grosses me
out. <shudder>
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
> I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>
> http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm
>
[snip]
> Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of
> Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the
> Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are
> inhabited). But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these
> beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."
>
> On these Indonesian islands, there's a small marsupial called the
> paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family.
> Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees
> eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first
> thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also
> digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply
> lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion
> process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries'
> mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add
> something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.
>
[snip]

Hehe. I had couple of coffee cups made with the pooping civet
image on them. I thought about making a t-shirt but never got
around to it.

--
Jean B.

OmManiPadmeOmelet wrote:
>
> I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>
> http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm
>
> Is it worth the money? Five dollars for a single cup? Sure, why not?
> You'll pay more than that in any Paris cafe for a bad au lait. Might as
> well spend it on something rare and exotic.

I tried it once. It's mild and pleasant. Trouble is I like heavier
more robust coffees. I'm not impressed with Kona because of
that personal taste and since this lemure-poop coffee is milder
than Kona it was lost on me.