coffee with a meowly kick!

Famous for its unappetizing secret that gives it a unique taste, civet coffee, or what is famously known in the Philippines and neighboring countries as “Coffee Alamid,” is regarded as one of the most expensive coffee in the world.

Unappetizing secret

For some of you who still do not know how civet coffee is produced, here’s a brief explanation. Civet coffee is actually made from excreta or droppings of wild civets after ingesting coffee cherries – Arabica – which grew in forest floors of mountains. Wild civets are nocturnal animals which belong to the family of mongoose. The civets visit the coffee plantation at night, eating the ripe coffee cherries and excrete them as they leave the area. These droppings then are collected very early in the morning and dried to produce the civet coffee beaneries.

Unique taste

Researchers explain that as the beans enter the civet’s digestive system, an enzyme which breaks proteins into smaller parts interacts with the beans. The smaller protein will then react with the bean’s carbohydrate or sugar during roasting, exuding that chocolaty, fruity-musty aroma. Some say though that civet coffee has an unpredictable and inconsistent taste owing to the wild civet’s wide array of diet which includes rodents, fruits and eggs.

Expensive

A kilogram of civet coffee costs as much as $100 to $125, and perhaps even more pricey than that number. Unroasted Arabica civet coffee even sells for up to $500 per kilogram – five times more expensive than the Jamaican Blue Mountain. Surprised? Perhaps, it is because of the tedious work collecting droppings entail. Gatherers climb mountain and gather droppings very early in the morning and could only gather a good 1 kilo on a good day, going through 300 kilograms of civet coffee beanery on a good season.

While a sip of it would be considered golden, because people are curious about its magical taste, they don’t mind paying that much.

The kick

I, myself, have fallen for the magical meowly taste of the civet coffee. It has a strong dark chocolaty taste which really gives your vein a rush of caffeine to help kick your day.

If you’d ask me how often I drink this blend of coffee, well, I am not Richie Rich to afford me a daily dose of it, but hey, I would if I could. And while it is a poop-drink, I am all desirous to give myself that catly alertness to last through the day.

Meow - Yumm!