We live in the middle of a coffee craze. You just need to wake up early enough to see the thousands of commuters who head for a coffee shop before they head for work. There are many options for coffee in these days, from the inexpensive cup you can get at your convenience store to a cup of gourmet coffee. What makes a person by a $10 coffee every day is something that I may never understand. But many people swear by it. They cannot see themselves starting to work without their morning dose of coffee.
What type is the most popular? From here it’s a question of personal preference. Some people will only have black coffee. Black coffee is very traditional and you can get it pretty much anywhere. If you want something else like a latte or an espresso, you’ll have to go to those specialty-coffee shops. Now getting that coffee will not come cheap. For those of us who want to prepare our coffee at home, we can also get it by the pound. We buy one of those fancy coffee makers and we are good to go.
We didn’t have this 20 years ago, remember? About 20 years ago everything you would get would be black coffee. There wasn’t the craze that we have now for “specialty coffee.” How much would you pay for a high-end cup of coffee? Would you do $15? How about $20? Well, you would be surprised to believe that there are people who would pay up to $80 per cup!
What’s in that cup of coffee? Is it enhanced in any way? Not exactly, and yes there’s a secret ingredient. But we’re not talking about some rare premium ingredient. What’s in this cup of coffee is every bit as controversial as it is expensive. These coffee beans are made in the most unlikely of places, Indonesia. It was discovered by farmers over there. There is a type of cat called Civet, that roams the coffee plantation. The cat will eat the coffee cherries. If you were to taste the coffee cherry, they taste sweet. So, they taste sweet to them as well as to us.
The coffee is called kopi luwak and it can go for about $250 the pound. How do they make it? Well, it’s made in the cat’s digestive system. Once they have eaten the cherry, some enzymes get added. Add a “special” coat and it’s done! After this process, the bean is left intact. How do they remove it? When the Civet poops… You guessed it! It’s in the droppings.
Pretty gourmet, huh? Well, that’s the truth. It may not be very glamorous, but many people swear it’s delicious. It even appeared in a Jack Nicholson movie that started all the craze. It was tested by a group of professional coffee tasters. These people do coffee-tasting for a living. You can swear they are very good at it. Wait until you see where it ranked
