Do You Know Where Your Coffee Comes From?
You may not think that ‘gourmet’ or high-quality coffee is monkey business, but what would you say if you found out that some of the world’s best and most expensive coffee comes from a monkey’s ‘business,’ er, their poop?
“Kopi Luwak” coffee is made from berries that have passed through the digestive system of a special type of Indonesian monkey. The coffee berries (that grow on shrubs) are eaten by the animals and passes through their system without being digested. Given the lengthy process, including the job of having to go through monkey dung to gather the undigested coffee berries, only around 500 pounds are harvested every year. That, and given its unique taste, has made Kopi Luwak the most expensive (around US $300 a pound) and popular gourmet coffee in the world – until now.
Recently, cafés around the world have been buzzing about a new type of Kopi Luwak coffee, in this case from the droppings of a small, cat-like mammal called a civet. Often called "cat poo coffee,” it is definitely worth more than a cat’s droppings at US $50 a cup and around $340 to $400 a pound! Then there is coffee made from the dung of barking deer in Southeast Asia. And the latest? Coffee beans that have been chewed and spat out by Rhesus monkeys in the distant jungles of India. Only very small quantities are available at this point, and they cost a monkey arm and a leg!
From The Ground Up
Coffee was first discovered in the East African country of Ethiopia around 1,000 AD. Legend has it that an Ethiopian goatherd found his goats dancing around a shrub with bright red cherries and realized that the cherries were causing that behavior after he tried them himself. He took the beans to a local Muslim monastery and the monks started using them to help stay awake during long hours of prayer. They in turn shared it with other monasteries in the region.
By the 16th century, coffee had found its way to the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Africa, and then to Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Initially, people mashed up the red coffee berries and mixed them with fatty meat like bacon to make an energy bar. It wasn’t until the 15th century that the practice of roasting and brewing coffee, similar to how we do it today, started in the Arabian Peninsula. Initially, the orthodox Muslim priests prohibited the drinking of coffee because of its exciting effects. But the widespread popularity of the drink resulted in the overturn of the ban. Soon, coffee was here to stay.
Today, we pour about 1.6 billion cups of coffee a day around the world! The United States is the single biggest drinker of coffee in the world, having about 45 percent of that (700 million cups a day). However, it’s the people in Finland, Sweden and Norway who are the top coffee drinkers per person per year.
And gourmet coffee sales are continuing to increase steadily by 20 percent every year, and is the biggest export for countries like Brazil, the largest coffee exporting nation, followed by Vietnam and Indonesia.
So although coffee may sometimes be a monkey’s business, it is definitely not a joke.
i dont see why its so expensive i mean all you are doing is drinking sanitized monkey poop.
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um.............................................. eeeeeeeewwwww!!!!!! kind of gross but awesome article!
My parents drink coffee, its quite nice. But somewhat stomach pain..To all people don't drink too much COFFEE!!!!
That is interesting, but extremely disgusting.
Cool. But its kind of gross/
I can't believe it!!
good thing i never drank it and now i will never will disgusting poop!! blech!
i know mine probably comes from brazil, because brazil is a huge exporter of coffee
Its disgusting that they have passed throughan animal. Why do people still drink it.
I love coffee, but not anymore
Well,if you didn't pay $400 a pound for your coffee you shouldn't worry about
I am never drinking coffee again. Neverrrr!
Ew! The coffee comes from poop?? I hope to NEVER drink that! So, in the early ages is that what they drank? But I would never pay that much for civet poop! It's way to expensive for my family!
Why would people pay so much?
Oh thats cool, I thought you got coffee from beans, not berries.
The coffee beans that we know of are actualy seeds inside the berries. They harvest the bean and roast it.
I don`t really like coffee. People say that you get addicted to it, and they say it`s not good for your body.
coffee has definitely traveled from such far places to very close to us, and now is the top seller. that is a lot of coffee
Cool. I thought you could only use coffee beans only but i guess i was wrong. Berries? That interesting.
Me too.
Yeah I've heard of it & I would like to taste it.
I LOVE Coffee
My parents don't drink coffee.
I love coffee - though it's gross when it's black - and I'm glad that most coffee comes directly from the berries and is not...er...pre-digested. Yuk.
this is really, really gross!!!!!!!! EWWWW!!!!!
that is very gross that there is coffee that comes from monkey poop ewwwwwwww
i think coffee is great but if it comes for peanuts i can`t drink it
If we are kids, why would we all be drinking very expensive, gourmet coffee?
eeewwww my sis drinks coffee
NASTY!!!!!!!
that is so gross why would u do that
that is so gross who would want to drink that. i would never do that
wow!! thats sick
Animal poo com coffee...pretty interesting! Tasty, I would say...(not)!
I have never tasted coffee before because my mom says that she is waiting for me to grow up first. She says that it takes away sleep and is not healthy. Waiting to have a real cup of coffee...
The coffee is made out of monkey or cat poop.. glad that most coffee is made out of berries.
now that i read this i will never ever drink from a gourmet coffee again. i wont even drink coffee.
Ew... I never knew that people make coffee out of animal droopings! I'd check the label first thing if I ever bought coffee!
It's cool how they can create high-quality coffee from animal droppings. Not appetizing but still, what a way to make coffee!
They clean the berries once they come out, for all you people who think it's disgusting. And fine, high-quality coffee comes out of an animal's butt.
i hope that animal does not hurt anyone that would be really bad:)
What type of cat was that?
interesting... but who would pay so much money for poop?
bleh im never going to look at coffee the same EEEEEWWWWWWWW
gross!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol thats expensive poop lol but i think that its not worth the money and i would not drink something thats been digested
or starbucks cups
i will never touch a coffee again!
Weird. I knew about monkey poo coffee, but I didn't know it was that expensive.