"OmManiPadmeOmelet" > schreef in bericht
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>I think I'll "pass" personally. ;-)
> At $300.00 per lb. that's some seriously expensive shit!
>
> http://www.sallys-place.com/beverage...kopi_luwak.htm
>
> Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties
> have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of
> rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These
> coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry,
> command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such
> short supply, has such unique flavors and an, um, interesting background
> as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price: Kopi Luwak sells
> for $75 per quarter pound. Granted, that's substantially less than
> marijuana, but it's still unimaginably high for coffee.
>
> Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak comes from the islands of
> Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), which are part of the
> Indonesian Archepelago's 13,677 islands (only 6,000 of which are
> inhabited). But it's not strictly the exotic location that makes these
> beans worth their weight in silver. It's how they're "processed."
>
> On these Indonesian islands, there's a small marsupial called the
> paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family.
> Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees
> eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first
> thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also
> digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate -- or simply
> lazy -- local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion
> process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries'
> mucilage. The enzymes in the animals' stomachs, though, appear to add
> something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation.
>
> Curiously, Kopi Luwak isn't the only "specialty" food that begins this
> way. Argan is an acacia-like tree that grows in Morocco and Mexico
> which, through its olive-like fruit, yields argan oil. In Morocco, the
> Berbers encourage goats to climb the trees to eat the fruit. They later
> gather the goats' excrement and remove the pits, which they grind for
> oil to be used in massage, in cooking and as an aphrodisiac.
>
> What started as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee without
> climbing the trees has since evolved into the world's priciest specialty
> coffee. Japan buys the bulk of Kopi Luwak, but M.P. Mountanos
> (800-229-1611), the first in the United States to bring in this exotic
> bean, recently imported 110 pounds after a seven year search for a
> reliable and stable supplier. "It's the rarest beverage in the world,"
> Mark Mountanos says, estimating a total annual crop of less than 500
> pounds.
>
> Richard Karno, former owner of The Novel Cafe in Santa Monica,
> California, got a flyer from Mountanos about Kopi Luwak and "thought it
> was a joke." But Karno was intrigued, found it it was for real, and
> ordered a pound for a tasting. Karno sent out releases to the local
> press inviting them to a cupping. When no one responded, he roasted it
> and held a cupping for himself and his employees. Karno is very
> enthusiastic, a convert to Kopi Luwak. "It's the best coffee I've ever
> tasted. It's really good, heavy with a caramel taste, heavy body. It
> smells musty and jungle-like green, but it roasts up real nice. The LA
> Times didn't come to our cupping, but ran a bit in their food section,
> which hit the AP Wire service." And Karno and the folks at M.P.
> Mountanos have been inundated with calls ever since.
>
> Mountanos says, "It's the most complex coffee I've ever tasted,"
> attributing the unusual flavors to the natural fermentation the coffee
> beans undergo in the paradoxurus' digestive system. The stomach acids
> and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water. Mountanos
> says, "It has a little of everything pleasurable in all coffees: earthy,
> musty tone, the heaviest bodied I've ever tasted. It's almost syrupy,
> and the aroma is very unique." While it won't be turning up in every
> neighborhood cafe any day soon, Mountanos reports that Starbucks bought
> it for cuppings within the company.
>
> In fact, most of Mountanos' customers have bought it for special
> cuppings. The Coffee Critic in San Mateo, California, though,
> occasionally sells Kopi Luwak to the public for $5 a cup. Owner Linda
> Nederman says she keeps the price low to allow people to experience the
> coffee. Nederman says that most of her people who try it are longtime
> customers, and they're "game to try something different and unusual.
> I've never had anybody complain, they all seem to feel it's worth the
> price." Nederman drinks it herself every time they brew it. "I've never
> tasted anything like it. It's an unbelieveable taste in your mouth:
> richness, body, earthiness, smooth." She also carries Jamaica Blue
> Mountain, Burundi Superior AA and Brazil FZA "Natural Dry," so her
> customers are used to fine and exotic coffees. Still, she reports, many
> are afraid to try Kopi Luwak.
>
> Michael Beech, founding partner in Raven's Brew Coffee:
> http://www.ravensbrew.com/ or email: , a roaster,
> wholesaler and mail order (800-91-RAVEN) merchant in Ketchikan, Alaska,
> used to sell roasted-to-order Kopi Luwak by the quarter pound ($75,
> including a free t-shirt depicting the coffee-making process) but no
> longer does: http://www.ravensbrew.com/NewFiles/kopiluwak.html . "It's
> excellent coffee. But I always caution customers that you can't get $75
> worth of quality in any coffee, there's no such thing. You're paying for
> the experience of quaffing the world's rarest and most expensive coffee.
> The palate would recognize it as Sumatran or Indonesian right away. It
> has earthy tones of natural processed Sumatra Mandheling. It has low
> acidity with a syrupy body. There's something else there, a nuance in
> the flavor profile that I can't describe, and when I've challanged
> others, no one else can either. It's almost alien, a tiny little flavor
> note, highly exotic." The last bag he sold was to John Cleese of Monty
> Python and Fierce Creatures fame.
>
> But not everyone is seduced by this exotic coffee's charms. "Kopi Luwak
> is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from many an average robusta,
> especially if you cup them next to each other," says Tim Castle, coffee
> expert and author of The Perfect Cup, referring to the lower grade of
> commercially available coffees. "Kopi Luwak's processing is unusual and
> attracts attention. In that sense, it is an interesting coffee."
>
> Intrigued by the hype, I drove out to the Los Angeles warehouse of M.P.
> Mountanos to cup some Kopi with Andrew Vournas. The green beans, which
> range from tiny to elephant, have a faint smell that hints of a zoo or
> stables -- a little funky, not your average coffee aroma. He lightly
> roasts about 21 grams, enough beans for three cups, in a Jabez Burns two
> barrel sample roaster, a rare and beautiful machine dating from the
> '30s. Vournas gives the beans a light roast -- just after the second
> popping -- to accentuate the specific flavors of this rare coffee; a
> darker roast would obliterate the subtler flavors and replace them with
> a more generic taste. Vournas points out that this coffee, like most
> Indonesian-grown, has lots of moisture and roasts nicely.
>
> Vournas gives the beans a course grind and mixes seven grams of coffee
> with four ounces of water in each of three cups. The aroma is rich and
> strong, and the coffee is incredibly full bodied, almost syrupy. It's
> thick with a hint of chocolate, and lingers on the tongue with a long,
> clean aftertaste. It's definitely one of the most interesting and
> unusual cups I've ever had.
>
> Is it worth the money? Five dollars for a single cup? Sure, why not?
> You'll pay more than that in any Paris cafe for a bad au lait. Might as
> well spend it on something rare and exotic.
> --
> Peace, Om
>
> Remove _ to validate e-mails.
>
> "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack
> Nicholson

i beleive argan oil is produced using similar mehtods> I am very tempted to
try it, but the cost and my overly full pantry stopped me from buying ti
when I finally discovered a small bottle in a store recently. IIRC, the
price was 7,50 Euros for 100 ml (organic argan oil).