Venti Half Caf Def Breve?
I have never been a big Starbucks customer; thankfully, I was born without a discriminating coffee palate. I can enjoy most anything. But I wonder if I would enjoy the most expensive coffee in the world? I am speaking, of course, of Kopi Luwak. This primarily-Indonesian coffee is made of coffee berries that have been eaten and, uh, inspected for quality by the palm civet. How do civets inspect for quality? Well, they pass the berries, if you get my drift. It gives a whole new meaning to roasting. It’s a little bit like a naturally occurring Mochaccino.
Asian Palm Civet
According to the Wikipedia article
The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process.
Complex? Process? Well, at least they are washed. It’s a little bit like a fine Barolo. Instead of 3 or 5 years in an aging barrel, the beans age in civet bowels for a few hours. You might call this coffee “high end”. Prices for this gourmet coffee range from $120 to $600 per pound, although on-line bean prices are typically expressed per 100 grams to prevent seizures.
If you prefer your coffee “filtered” by a different animal, Kopi Muntjac is coffee from berries that have passed through barking deer.
Muntjac Barking Deer
From Vietnam comes another special blend, Weasel Puke. Weasel Puke comes from coffee berries that have been ingested and subsequently regurgitated by the local version of the Asian Palm Civet. Apparently, the berries in Vietnam upset the tummy of the civets so that they must, you know, throw them back up. I’m guessing that this coffee is like a strong roast sumatra.
There have been reports of single cups of these coffees selling from anywhere between $50 and nearly $100. I wonder if the $100 cup of Kopi Luwak was anything like double roasted. Now that would be complex.