Poop Cat Coffee All the Rage Down Under

Everyone likes a good cup of java in the morning. Aussies enjoy a new, rare kind of bean for their brew. It comes from the feces of Indonesian Civet cats.

Allan and Michelle Sharp are cafe owners in Australia's Queenland district. They sell this delicacy for $50 dollars a cup. Michelle told the AP that, "everyone calls it cat poo coffee." What a great sales pitch! Allan Sharpe offered this explanation for the cat poop phenomina: "People who willingly pay the $50 are uplifted by the thrill of the experience."A person can only imagine how uplifting poop coffee would be.

The poopy coffee, Kopi Luwak, called is considered one of the world's most expensive. Each bean is picked individually from the finest civet cats in Indonesia. These cats are considered a delicacy in China but for Australians they are only valued for their fecal matter. It is worth mentioning that these civet cats were linked to the SARS epidemic a few years ago.

One taster told the AP, "It's as good as my private life is bad. This is the kind of coffee you renounce your religion and sell your child for." The lesson: If you are someone's child or someone's pastor, be wary because poop coffee could change your life.

Apparently, these cats digest coffee cherries and their partially digested leftovers are cultivated. The civet's digestive process is believed to help give the flavor to the bean. The stomach enzymes break down the beans cherry covering and ferment the bean to give it that bitter taste. Not all of the poopy beans are harvested. Only the best one's are taken out of the feces to keep. Once the best beans are chosen, they are washed over and over again to get rid of the extra poop on the bean. Kopi Luwak also happens to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It costs around $600 US dollars a pound. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is the Indonesian name for civet.

Everyone likes a good cup of java in the morning. Aussies enjoy a new, rare kind of bean for their brew. It comes from the feces of Indonesian Civet cats.

Allan and Michelle Sharp are cafe owners in Australia's Queenland district. They sell this delicacy for $50 dollars a cup. Michelle told the AP that, "everyone calls it cat poo coffee." What a great sales pitch! Allan Sharpe offered this explanation for the cat poop phenomina: "People who willingly pay the $50 are uplifted by the thrill of the experience."A person can only imagine how uplifting poop coffee would be.

The poopy coffee, Kopi Luwak, called is considered one of the world's most expensive. Each bean is picked individually from the finest civet cats in Indonesia. These cats are considered a delicacy in China but for Australians they are only valued for their fecal matter. It is worth mentioning that these civet cats were linked to the SARS epidemic a few years ago.

One taster told the AP, "It's as good as my private life is bad. This is the kind of coffee you renounce your religion and sell your child for." The lesson: If you are someone's child or someone's pastor, be wary because poop coffee could change your life.

Apparently, these cats digest coffee cherries and their partially digested leftovers are cultivated. The civet's digestive process is believed to help give the flavor to the bean. The stomach enzymes break down the beans cherry covering and ferment the bean to give it that bitter taste. Not all of the poopy beans are harvested. Only the best one's are taken out of the feces to keep. Once the best beans are chosen, they are washed over and over again to get rid of the extra poop on the bean. Kopi Luwak also happens to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It costs around $600 US dollars a pound. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is the Indonesian name for civet.

Is drinking a cup of this coffee really safe? Professor Massimo Marcone of the University of Guelph tested this coffee bean to make sure. "As a food scientist, I'm skeptical that anything being in contact with feces is safe. But tests revealed that the Kopi Luwak beans had negligible amounts of enteric (pathogenic) organisms associated with feces."

One thing is for sure. A poop bean extractor would be on the top of the worst jobs list. Picking out tiny little beans out of a pile of feces in the hot Indonesian heat is most definitely a shitty job.

Sources: Reuters, AP, Research News