Bitter Ends? Civet Coffee

The Times recently featured Kopi Luwak, Civet Coffee. The "beans"undergo a unique journey on the way to the roaster, to say the least. In the Philippines and Indonesia, the civet purloins the sweetest coffee cherries from the trees; as the cherries are digested by the civet's g.i. tract, the nascent coffee beans--more seed-like than a run of the mill bean--ferment. The fermented seeds can be gathered from civet scat, rinsed, roasted and brewed into what is considered the world's best coffee.

With prices of $99 a cup and $227 for a pound of beans, fakes abound, so beware. And with market demand, a Vietnamese company produces a brand of civet coffee not fermented in the mongoose's gut, but in a synthetic enzyme wash. I guess it is not only for the thrifty, but also for the faint of heart.