This is not a post about dieting or even health – but it is about a product that most folks consume every day – Coffee.  It is just too weird, so of course I have to blog about it.

Question of the day:  If you were going to chose between these two coffees which would you pick:   one made from monkey spit (already been chewed)  or from civet poo (already been digested)?

Monkey Spit Coffee:  according to the MSNBC news report this morning, a farmer in Yulin, Taiwan has developed a new coffee blend: Monkey Spit Coffee. The farmer noticed the Yunlin monkeys eating the fleshy fruit around the coffee bean and spitting out the hard bean center. So he collected and brewed it and discovered it has a unique taste, different from the original. Liao says the discarded seeds yield a sweeter coffee with a vanilla-like scent, which sells for about $56 a pound. (Source: News Report)

Civet Poo Coffee: In doing some research on Monkey Spit Coffee, I also came across Kopi Luwak (Wikipedia) – a very rare gourmet coffee from Indonesia that is made from beans passed through the digestive system of the a cat-like animal called a palm civet, a dark brown tree-dwelling creature; it sells for between $120 and $600 USD per pound and has a musty smell, but folks report that it is the best coffee they ever tasted (with a unique “earthy” taste, which has made it the most expensive and sought-after coffee in the world).

According to a feature article by the Manila Coffee House, which sells the stuff, the people who harvest the digested beans don’t really have to pick through cat litter to get it. The animal processes the beans and excretes them whole, unscratched, and without dung. The palm civet likes to ingest the ripest and reddest coffee beans, which also happen to be the ones best for brewing. The animal eats the outer covering of the beans in the same way that is accomplished by de-pulping machines. Something happens to the beans in the journey through the animals’s intestines that gives it a flavor that is celebrated by coffee drinkers.

US-based food and drink critic Chris Rubin said: “Whether it’s because the intestinal juices give some special flavour or because it eats only perfectly ripe berries, the Toddy Cat’s droppings produce what many say is the world’s finest coffee.” (Nov. 2001)      (Source: Truth or Fiction article)

I think I’ll be sticking with my traditional every day coffee, but if I had to chose I guess I’d go with the Monkey Spit coffee (at least it’s only been chewed rather then traveling the entire digestive system).   What would your pick be if you had to chose?

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Currently Diet Pulpit is rarely updated. Lady Rose is now blogging at Blissful Moon, where she is staying healthy and continuing to have adventures, please stop by and visit.

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