Monday, October 26, 2009

Coffee Alamid



Coffee from Alamid droppings!!! Anyone?

Alamid or wild Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) is a family of mongoose, it looks like a cat, lived in a forest and is carnivorous, but this creature loves to eat coffee cherries, the beans inside passes though its digestive tract and comes out with other fecal matters.

Mountain dwellers gathers these undigested coffee beans and washed them, sundry, roast for 7 hours, remove its shell and eventually grind them into powder which they call Coffee Alamid, Kupi luak as they call it in Indonesia or kafe laku in East Timur.



Coffee from Alamid droppings is rare, in fact it is a world's rarest brew. I only knew about it recently after 5 years staying in the coffee producing province of Cavite. No wonder why some considered it as one of the country's best keep secret.

Its taste and aroma is far better than coffee prepared in the usual way and that explains why it is so expensive. a kilo would cost you more or less US$500.