Civet Coffee

Here in the Philippines you can find a rare coffee blend called Civet Coffee. Here's a picture of the Palm Civet who makes the coffee:

You may ask, "how does this odd little creature make coffee?" Well, he doesn't actually brew the coffee, he just sort of ... well ... alters the coffee bean. He does this by ... er ... eating the bean and ... uhm ... okay, I'll just write what's written on the package:

Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet. The civets eat the berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested.

Apparently these palm civets and their heightened sense of smell can detect the best of the coffee berry crop. They only eat the best so they only ... well ... poop out the best! Once the animal's droppings are found they are washed, dried, and roasted to capture the complex flavours given to the bean during it's Palm Civet ordeal.

There's some debate whether the beans are regurgitated instead of defecated. Either way, vomit or poop, it's a different coffee making process.

The Palm Civet, and this coffee making process, takes place outside the Philippines as well. You can find them in the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi and in the Indonesian Archipelago. The biggest consumers of this coffee are Americans and the Japanese. Civet Coffee is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound. I found a local coffee shop called Bo's Coffee selling a 50g jar of Civet Coffee for 500 pesos. A real bargain when you consider how much it's sold for outside the country. I bought 3 jars. So for Christmas, 3 friends and/or family will find weasel poop coffee in their stocking!