Civets and ‘Cat Poop Coffee’ – A Story Worth Telling

The bats and civets belong to the same family, and they are the protagonists of high-priced 'cat poop coffee'

Currently in China, the topic of wild animals has become a hot topic, and among them, the 'civets' topic is very easy to arouse people's nerves. It is estimated that most people have a fear mentality towards this spirit animal. These spirit animal species have a wide distribution in many parts of the world, and also have many names. These spirit animals are closely related to the 'cat poop coffee' that was once very popular and expensive in China

In those 'cat poop coffee' promotions, it is said that 'cat poop coffee' comes from Southeast Asian civets, but civets and cats belong to the same family, and their bean patterns are slightly different, and their body shape and living habits are the same. They are the protagonists of 'cat poop coffee'. Civets are mainly distributed in China, while civets are mainly distributed in Indonesia

In Indonesia, local civets are used to produce 'cat poop coffee', while in Taiwan and other regions, civets are used to produce 'cat poop coffee'. In the eastern coastal areas of Taiwan, you can see many 'cat poop coffee' farms advertising on roads, and the Taiwanese people frankly say that 'cat poop coffee' in Taiwan is produced by civets. In some 'cat poop coffee' sold in China, it is actually produced by civets

Taiwan's 'cat poop coffee' has a very unauthentic taste, and now it can only be seen in some remote plantations in Indonesia. People really don't drink it much, it's mainly for export, and the main export regions are Asia. Asian people are willing to buy this packaged 'cat poop coffee' at a high price because of some publicity

The coffee beans are actually the seed of the middle part of the coffee fruit, and the coffee fruit needs to be removed from the outer fruit pulp, and the coffee beans outside need to be removed. After drying and roasting, the inside of the coffee beans becomes brown or black. Different roasting and drying techniques will determine the taste of coffee. 'Cat poop coffee' is produced by spirit animals eating these coffee beans. After the civets eat the mature coffee fruit, the fruit pulp is digested, and the coffee bean seeds are excreted with their feces. If you observe carefully, these feces are not necessarily complete, and may be damaged

This 'weird' 'cat poop' coffee has a very weird and authentic taste, and it's quite heavy

These 'cat poop' feces were picked up by me and didn't have a strong smell. Pure plant-eating animals' feces don't have much smell, only omnivorous or carnivorous animals have very smelly feces. These 'cat poop' feces are washed with water and screened, and become semi-finished 'cat poop coffee' beans. These 'cat poop' beans are roasted and ground, and then screened and filtered to become 'cat poop coffee' finished coffee powder. Most of the 'cat poop coffee' sold in Indonesia is sold in powder form

• In the natural environment, civets freely select food, and the amount of 'cat poop coffee' produced is very low. In many tropical plantations, there are many food choices, and civets don't necessarily only eat coffee beans. They can eat insects, cocoa fruit, nutmeg and other things. If I look for food in an Indonesian plantation, I would rather eat sweet cocoa fruit, and I really don't like the taste of raw coffee beans

So plantation owners, in order to increase the production of 'cat poop coffee' and reduce the damage caused by civets to other economic crops in the plantation, civets are forced to eat cocoa fruit. This ensures a steady supply of 'cat poop', which significantly reduces the quality of 'cat poop coffee' due to violating the natural feeding rules of animals. However, unfortunately, coffee consumers don't understand this

Civets are nocturnal animals, but in order to let tourists watch them during the day, Indonesian botanical gardens will wake up the civets during the day and bring them to the coffee plantation for tourists to watch. This tourism has become a sales trick for plantation owners to sell 'cat poop coffee', because 'cat poop coffee' is much more expensive than ordinary coffee beans, and many Asian tourists like to bring this so-called 'genuine' 'cat poop coffee' back as souvenirs, so the sales channel is very good, even if the price is high, there are still tourists who will buy it

However, true coffee tasting masters disdain this high-priced 'cat poop' coffee. Mass-produced 'cat poop coffee' doesn't have high quality. 'Cat poop coffee' needs to be seasoned to show its 'high-end' quality. Raw 'cat poop' coffee powder doesn't taste good. The claims that 'reduced the original bitterness, has a unique aroma, and has a wonderful sweetness' have never been felt by me. At least for the raw 'cat poop' coffee powder in Indonesia, I can't taste these sensations

For me, I would rather drink coffee produced in Central America. After tasting coffee from different regions in the world, I believe 'cat poop coffee' is just a gimmick in China, only wealthy Asian 'coffee snobs' will be interested in this kind of coffee, which seems to be a 'high-end drink' that can be used to elevate oneself

So there formed in Asia, a 'cat poop coffee' consumption group of people who wish to satisfy their desires and people who are willing to pay for it

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