JAKARTA, Indonesia -- 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. Still in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, the owner of three fashionable cafes, Agus Susanto, sells what he claims is a mix of regular beans and those that have passed through civets. The blend and the cafes are both called "Kopi Luwak" -- in English: "Civet Coffee." "Our coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma," Susanto said by telephone from his factory in central Java.
Others just won't swallow the claims.
Who Is Cowtown Pattie?
- Cowtown Pattie
- I was Lillie Langtry in another life, and might have a crush on Calamity Jane.
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