My civet coffee experience
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Filed under Food trips & events; Non-recipes; coffee, Filipino delicacies
Two years ago, we were spending a couple of days in Tagaytay and, as had been our practice, we went to Bag of Beans for one of our meals. They had a new item on their menu—coffee alamid—and my daughter, Sam, excitedly said she would order a cup.
We had heard of coffee alamid, of course, and all the notoriety that went with it, including the shock and disgust in people’s voices when they uttered the word “alamid.” To make a long story short, by the time we were through with dinner and it was time to order coffee, Sam started having second thoughts and finally discarded the idea altogether.
Personally, I wasn’t interested in coffee alamid. Living in an age of glitzy cafés most of which sell mediocre coffee, I am always wary of overpriced beverages and coffee alamid is reputedly the most expensive coffee in the world. In the US, a pound goes for $160 to $420; a cup sells for as much as $10. I’ve always wondered whether the price was due to its rarity, the labor intensive production, or a combination of both plus the hype it has generated.
For the uninitiated, coffee alamid—kopi luwak in Indonesia and kafé-laku in East Timor—is known by the rest of the world as civet coffee. The Asian palm civet, also known as the toddy cat, is a nocturnal omnivore found in Southeast Asia and China. It feeds on small animals as well as fruits and coffee berries. When it eats coffee berries, the beans remain undigested. These undigested beans are picked from its drippings, cleaned, washed, dried and made into coffee. The theory is that the enzymes in the civet’s stomach do things to the coffee beans to give them great flavor.
Last weekend, my brother and his family visited and brought us a present—a jar of civet coffee beans. I tore the seal, opened the jar and the first thing I noticed was the glossy exterior of the coffee beans as though they were coated with oil. After dinner, I dumped half of the contents of the jar into the blender and processed the beans to a coarse grind. The aroma was decidedly fruity and sweet. The ground civet coffee beans went into the coffee percolator and, several minutes later, I was excitedly serving civet coffee to everyone who cared for a cup.
For Filipinos who associate good brewed coffee with the strong bitter (and somewhat sour) flavor of kapeng barako, civet coffee can either be a welcome change or a sorry disappointment. Civet coffee is mild, nutty, chocolatey and sweet. It doesn’t give you a jolt the way more full bodied coffee does. Drinking a cup of civet coffee is more like sipping a glass of wine—you pause between mouthfuls and allow the flavors to linger in your mouth. It is undoubtedly a wonderful accompaniment to a light dessert as civet coffee does not have the effect of drowning subtle flavors. Personally, I still prefer the boldness of Benguet coffee.
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[...] preference. Or, is it the hype surrounding a particular variety of coffee? I’ve tried civet (alamid) coffee, I liked it although I didn’t find it [...]
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sorry but this isnt about the coffee… are those silicon (brownie???) cups? and what are those yummy morsels ?
I’ve drank a wide variety of coffee here in Canada, US and back home. People can be very particular about their brews and for me it’s all about the right balance. The aroma, the almost caramelly taste, and the afternotes. I don’t like any sour notes in my coffee – that tells me that it’s not fresh. And for all the expensive beans, to me the very best coffee I ever tasted, was the freshly roasted coffee bought by a friend’s Batangas farmhand from a local marketplace, brewed in a large pot and served fresh with evaporated milk and sugar. It was almost heady, caramely, almost capuccino like but not.. There is nothing more exotic than that. (and since I did once work in the coffee trading industry, I do happen to know my coffee preferences) I’ve been searching for that perfect brew ever since…
I’d say, you are brave to have tasted the civet coffee. I can’t extracate myself from the thought that these are droppings. Also, because these came from the very animal that cause the SARS epidemic.
hello connie,
i find your site very informative and helpful to novice like myself.
to maria: additional info on civets(though i’m not claiming an expert) additional info ; they only eat ripe coffee beans(cherries) ,irregardless of varieties,so the droppings are a mixture of right vatieties(arabica,robusta,excelsea,liberica) which are nature-ripened beans. these are eaten by civets sporadically thus they are known to have a knack for eating quality beans. we humans can not duplicate this flair, only civets. so imagine superior beans are consumed with civets,later picked-up by farmers from the ground. only the skin of the beans are absorbed from the digestion process, still the outer shell is left intact. then, there are other series of procedures: drying,scaling,roasting & grinding, before it is served hot, uh brew/percolate first.
Here are the links. Self-frosting cupcakes baked in silicone cups.