Sep 16 2008
crappy cat coffee and siphon brewers
I ended up watching The Bucket List a couple of days ago. Good Movie, a bit sad though (my movie review haiku of it coming soon on my other blog site). Anyway, to get to the point of this entry, the infamous cat poop coffee (Kopi Luwak) was prominently featured throughout. Jack Nicholson’s character a billionaire businessman who is terminally ill, is featured savoring the stuff throughout the movie. The strange thing (spoiler alert) is that he actually does not know the source of his exotic coffee until it is revealed to him by Morgan Freeman towards the end of the film at which point Jack Quips: “You’re Sh!tting me.” I found this a strange that someone who is paying 180 bucks a pound for something would not know its source. I guess that is rich people for you.
They say Kopi Luwak gets its distinctive taste because of the exposure to the gastric juices that occurs as it passes through the intensital track of the wild civet cat of Indonesia.According to researchers, who have done blind taste test studies, Kopi Luwak is not really considered to taste any better that any other premium coffee, but this had not dissuaded cat poop coffee enthusiasts from shelling out top dollar to get their hands on a cup of this stuff. The Kopi Luwak industry has become extremely profitable in the last several years to the point that some entrepenuers have resorted to caging the the civet cat and force feeding it copious amounts of coffee in order to meet the high demand for the stuff.
I am sure that Kopi Luwak does not really taste like crap, and that it might actually have a distinctive taste that justifies its price tag. If it was offered to me, I would try it, if only to get the real scoop on the poop. I did find a site (animalcoffee.com) that sells unwashed green kopi luwak for half the price of the roasted stuff, but it is still sixty bucks for a bag of beans that are shaped like cat turds.
Crappy cat crap humor aside, the thing that I found more interesting in the movie was the cool looking siphon coffee maker that Jack has his assistant lug around so that he may enjoy his pricey poopy coffee wherever he may be. I have heard of the siphon process before, and have always been intrigued by it. There is a place in San Francisco called the Blue Bottle Cafe that has a siphon coffee bar that they imported from Japan. A cup of siphoned coffee from this bar does have a hefty price tag of 12 bucks, but I think I would be willing to part with that in order to experience it. I will be sure to let you all know, when I finally get around to it.
