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Dropping in for some rare coffee beans?
It's been almost two years since we first told you about the world's rarest coffee. Now, finally, you can get your mitts on some. If you're willing to part with 100 bucks for 1/4 pound, that is.
Pusateri's Fine Foods says it has a limited supply of Indonesian kopi luwak coffee. Kopi means coffee and luwak is a type of civet.
Luwaks eat ripe coffee berries. The beans travel through their intestinal tracts, where they are seasoned with enzymes and fermented. The whole beans are excreted on the jungle floor, where they are collected. (The civets use dung heaps as territorial markers, so we hope they are not all suffering nervous breakdowns.) Aficionados may joke that the end result is coffee that's good to the last dropping.
Total annual production of kopi luwak is only 500 pounds. But unrest in Indonesia had choked off the supply in 2003/2004. In addition, civets got a bad name after being linked to the transmission of SARS in China. However, vigorous washing, roasting and brewing slaughters any germs in the coffee beans.
In the Star test kitchen, we were not afraid to try them. When the package was opened, the beans released a whiff of earthiness, faintly reminiscent of manure. The brewed coffee was robust but smooth, with a deep flavour and a slightly acidic finish.
Pusateri's reports that the kopi luwak is selling "briskly." Rare delicacy or foolish decadence? You decide.
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