Comments on: Cat-butt coffee: A critical review

By: guitarchitect

guitarchitect — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:24:00 +0000

a heads up to the people asking about a synthetic process, there is one – developed at the University of Florida, licensed by Coffee Primero. It’s their “Magic Cat” line of beans. I haven’t tried it myself but BB should update/follow-up this article with a taste-test and comparison!

http://www.coffeeprimero.com/category/53-single-order.aspx

By: RJ

RJ — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:56:00 +0000

It’s probably a real hit with the scat fetishists.

By: macpearce

macpearce — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Hi, I’m Mac, and I’m gonna be the grumpy guy on the comments section.
I’ve got to start with this. Please don’t associate Kopi with specialty coffee. I work in the specialty industry and by no means is cat-shit considered a fine beverage. I’ve tried it, it tastes like cat-ass. The method by which the coffee is produced is inhumane to civets, who are caged in the same fashion you see those PETA ad chickens. WITHIN the specialty coffee industry, theres this great blog, a blog that blogs about the really great stuff, the great coffee and the great processing methods that go along with the coffee. Civet doo doo is never included as an acceptable or successful processing method. I’ve attached the link to “Sprudge”, that blog that the specialty industry goes to, below. PLEASE! I beg of you! Don’t tell your readers to drink it. It’s awful! A far better coffee can be found from a local roaster. Someone who, preferably, has not shit their beans.
I love your site. Thanks BoingBoing.
http://sprudge.com/say-no-to-kopi-luwak.html

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:47:00 +0000

Coffee and Tea Ltd. in Linden Hills, near Lake Harriet.

By: Damien

Damien — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:04:00 +0000

I tried to train my sister’s pet cat to produce cat-butt coffee.
Didn’t improve the flavour of the coffee, no matter how much I force-fed the poor animal.
Looking on the bright side, there is no apparent difference between the normal behaviour of this cat, and caffeine-OD-induced psychosis.

By: bmcraec

bmcraec — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 07:07:00 +0000

Something something Santorum?

By: bmcraec

bmcraec — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 06:57:00 +0000

I expect that would be a skinny mocha toxoplasmic Machiatto, easy on the foam.

By: urbanspaceman

urbanspaceman — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:23:00 +0000

Sounds like really good shit!

By: myob1776

myob1776 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:14:00 +0000

Danish brewer Mikkeller makes an amazing Oatmeal Stout brewed with cat-butt coffee; it’s called “Beer Geek Brunch (Weasel).”

http://www.mikkeller.dk/index.php?beer_id=78&id=61&land=1

By: pauljodi

pauljodi — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:22:00 +0000

I was told in Jamaica that the best coffee was made from beans confiscated from the secret storage caches of rats. The rats selectively take only the perfectly ripe red beans (because they taste the best) and ignore the partly green ones that are usually included in the harvests gathered by human pickers. These rat caches aren’t digested and pooped, just beans at their prime ripeness. Maybe the good taste of the Civet crap beans have nothing to do with passing through the animal but rather are the top quality beans to start.

By: Gregory Bloom

Gregory Bloom — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Do you s’pose the interested home-brewer can coerce a domestic feline to swallow a bunch of green coffee, then roast their own after kitty is done “processing”?

Also, if one instead employed a binturong, would the resulting beans take on their distinctive buttered-popcorn aroma?

By: GlenBlank

GlenBlank — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:09:00 +0000

[LanguageGeek]
Interestingly (well, to me, anyway), M-WU doesn’t include a definition of ‘fish’ that would extend to whales or sea stars.

The OED says that “popular language” sometimes uses such an extended sense (“…extended to include various cetaceans, crustaceans, molluscs, etc.”), but notes that “popular usage now tends to approximate” the modern scientific sense, and adds a usage note that “Except in the compound shell-fish, the word is no longer commonly applied in educated use to invertebrate animals.”

Dictionaries only record how skilled native speakers use the language, of course, but the differences between the entries for ‘cat’ and ‘fish’ suggest that ‘cat’ is commonly used in an extended sense that ‘fish’ is not.

At least not in “educated use.” :-)
[/LanguageGeek]

By: privatedick

privatedick — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Artificially processed civet coffee is fairly easy to buy, and it’s been judged to be comparable. I did a search for it just a few weeks back and could buy it for $17/lb. Google it yourself, lazybones.

By: GlenBlank

GlenBlank — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Um, what? Is there something wrong with the markup?

(It was a PITA to preserve the angle brackets without confusing Disqus, but it looks fine from here.)

By: GlenBlank

GlenBlank — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:34:00 +0000

Oh, pfff yourself. Nothing wrong with M-WU, and when I posted I happened to be on a different computer that didn’t have OED access.

The OED says pretty much the same thing (cat, n.1, def. 4a) and gives “civet cat” as an example.

Is that good enough, or will you sneer at any source that doesn’t support your prejudices?

By: Lisa @ Catalyst Pub

Lisa @ Catalyst Pub — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:05:00 +0000

What I want to know is where in the Twin Cities you found this, Maggie.

By: DewiMorgan

DewiMorgan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:51:00 +0000

It’s probably bad when it comes out frothy.

By: Dewi Morgan

Dewi Morgan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:31:00 +0000

Are m-w redefining “markup” as “mess up”, now?

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:31:00 +0000

In other news, all vegetables are grown in worm shit.

By: Brad Pottinger

Brad Pottinger — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:12:00 +0000

Both my lady and I have barista experience, and use it daily (multiple times usually.) I would agree with you if you were talking about not good coffee to begin with. Buy an espresso bean, espresso grind it and then add water to suit your taste. Mine is 2 oz espresso, 2 oz water, 1 oz cream. Awesome.

By: Ludovic Pessot

Ludovic Pessot — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:09:00 +0000

I’ll side with the Indonesian farmers on this one, thank you very much. I only drink tea anyway…

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:48:00 +0000

Pfff. Merriam-Webster.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:31:00 +0000

A more pedestrian (non-coffee-geek) example is Kona. Mostly it’s sold as a blend with other, cheaper coffees.

By: siloxane

siloxane — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:16:00 +0000

that plastic toy you are hacking (aero press) is not a good coffee maker

I have read other reviews from people who disagree with you.

By: Brooks Ballard

Brooks Ballard — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:06:00 +0000

and most of the time it is chemically treated rather than real cat butt coffee

By: Sharp

Sharp — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:10:00 +0000

It’s a great coffee maker. Just throw away original instructions and use instructions from brewmethods.com.

By: Elissa Malcohn

Elissa Malcohn — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:12:00 +0000

I think you mean Malabar coffee. (I’ve had it as Indian Malabar.) People tend to love it or hate it. I’m in the “love it” camp.

By: gavinzac

gavinzac — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

The developing world has found it easier to simply put the civets in cages and force feed them the beans.

By: gavinzac

gavinzac — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:57:00 +0000

There are factory farm setups. Wild Kopi Lewak is very rare now.

By: gavinzac

gavinzac — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:56:00 +0000

The stuff from Viet Nam is usually farm produced – the civets are kept in awful conditions. Please don’t buy, well, *anything* in Viet Nam.