Civet Coffee: Strange Brew With SARS

Tuesday, January 20th, 2004

I don’t even know what to say. From Civet Coffee: Strange Brew With SARS:

SARS fears have stopped the Chinese from eating civet cats. But that hasn’t turned off others from sipping the strangest of brews — one they insist is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the weasel-like animals.

The story goes like this: Civets live in the foliage of plantations across Southeast Asia. These fussy foragers pick the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit before the animals expel the bean.

Workers collect beans from the plantation floor, wash away the dung and roast them to produce a unique drink that devotees might say is good to the last dropping.

Skeptics, though, dismiss it all as a weird and unverifiable marketing gimmick.

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