Just found out a squirrel in Brazil once ate some coffee cherries and pooped out the beans, which is how we got a certain kind of coffee.

I read this weird fact in a book at the library called 'The World Atlas of Coffee' and it totally blew my mind, has anyone else heard about this or tried that kind of coffee?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantcooper1mo ago

Hold on, that story gets passed around a lot but it's mostly a fun myth. The real process for that coffee, called kopi luwak, is pretty grim when you look into it. They keep civet cats in cages now and force-feed them beans, which is awful. I tried it once before I knew and honestly it just tasted like weird, expensive dirt coffee. The whole thing is a bummer.

fionarodriguez1mo agoTop Commenter

Wait they force-feed the civets, @grantcooper? That's messed up.

robert27520d agoMost Upvoted

Totally agree with @grantcooper on this one. Once you know the real story behind that coffee, it's hard to enjoy it. I ran into this same problem a few years back when my buddy brought back a bag from Indonesia as a gift. Looked into it myself and found out how they keep those cats locked up tight, force-feeding them beans that weren't even ripe. Told my friend thanks but no thanks and just stuck to my regular dark roast. It's one of those things where the fancy name hides a pretty ugly truth, and honestly a lot of people don't even realize what they're supporting. Better to just skip it and find a good local roaster instead.