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Kopi Luwak
review of an odd coffee
I finally got around to trying
something I've been looking forward to for some time — a coffee called
kopi luwak, which has an unusual production method.
Essentially, the coffee is produced in Indonesia by harvesting partially
digested beans from the excrement of the Palm Civet (a cat-like animal
locally called a luwak, hence the name).
I'd read about it a few years back and had always been curious to try
it, but held back for a few reasons.
First, it's supposedly very rare and hence a little
more expensive than your local French Roast (upwards of $100/pound). And
because of the rarity, I suspect a lot of "fake" beans are floating
around. Given the production and harvest method, the higher cost and the
difficulty in telling what's "real," it makes sense to me that fake
beans (or a mix) would be common.
I finally got around to trying it for a couple of reasons — first, I
found a place that seemed legit. A roaster in Massachusetts was
referenced on a couple of other web sites I saw as being a legitimate
supplier, and so I decided to take a chance. The company, Armeno Coffee
Roasters, sells the bean in quantities as small as 4 ounces, so it was
affordable to try.
I'd heard varying stories about this coffee's taste
-- ranging from hallucinogenic, to crap, to amazing.
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Depending on who you talk to, it's either one of the
world's best coffees (perhaps owing to the partial-digestion process),
or crap being sold at a high price to people curious about the way it's
made.
My vote: it's simply average.
It's not a great coffee, and it's certainly not a bad coffee. It just
falls into that broad range of "drinkable and unexceptional," except
that — at least in theory — this bean was crapped out the ass of a cat.
But hey, I'm not complaining. It makes for a good story, if nothing
else, and my curiosity has been mostly satisfied. I'd still like to know
more about it, and I can't help but wonder if the beans delivered to me
really were authentic. But at least for now, it's one of those things I
can scratch off my list of "things I want to try."
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