Thursday, June 15, 2006
High-priced RP coffee beans come from animal droppings
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INDANG, Cavite – Its origins might put off some coffee drinkers, but an exotic bean that draws top dollar from connoisseurs is plucked from animal droppings.
Not just any animal. The coffee comes from beans eaten but undigested by the palm civet, a nocturnal, fruit eating cousins of the mongoose that roams tropical forest.
Civet coffee, which some aficionados consider among the world's best, sells in the United States for as much as $660 a kilogram or $300 a pound. Only 250 kg are produced worldwide each year, says Antonio Reyes, Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization Certifying Agency.
Although they normally eat sugar palm nuts, civets prefer the ripest coffee cherries during harvest season, which runs from December into March, but the beans pass through their system undigested and are deposited as sausage-like clumps onto the forest floor.
Reyes says the civet's digestive process, particularly enzymes in its stomach, probably gives the brew its distinctive flavor and aroma.
"It’s a special type of post-harvest processing. It ha been processed in a very natural way," he says.
Smelly or not in the forest, civet coffee in the cup has a "chocolatey aroma and the taste is bold and nutty," says Alvira "Vie" Reyes, a businesswoman who has branched into selling the exotic beans. Other fans described civet coffee as full-bodied with medium acidity and no bitter aftertaste.
Reyes and her husband, Basil, who are not related to Antonio Reyes, are trying to reheat local interest in producing civet coffee around Indang, a coffee- and sugar palm-producing town in Cavite province south of Manila.
Elders here say people used to gather civet dropping so their families could still have coffee even if they sold all their conventionally harvested beans.
Reyes says her company, which mainly makes vinegar from sugar palm sap, has produced only about 25 kg in two years and sold nearly all of it, keeping a little for their own use.
Antonio Reyes says Indonesia, where civet coffee is known as "kopi luwak," is the top producer, but he thinks it's an opportunity for the Philippines.
"If we can make a systematic collection of these droppings and produce them on a more systematic basis, maybe we can have a quantity available that we can produce for the export market," he says.
He says the Philippines, a coffee drinking nation but a small producer, should aim for "small volume but high value" coffee.
"We've been looking for types of coffee that we could sell in a niche market abroad because we don't have the quantity," he says. "But if these are coffees that are unique and different in taste, then we can get value for it."
Eleuterio Balido, a farmer who gathers sugar palm saps to make into vinegar for the Reyes’ company, says he sells a kilogram of dried civet beans for P1,000 ($18), about 45 times what he gets for conventional coffee beans.
The roasted beans are sold locally in 50-gram and 100-gram bottles for P250 ($4.50) and 500 ($9).
Balidio says he forages the forest floor and river banks for civet droppings near his home in Indang. "It's very difficult to look for it. It's like digging for gold."
Back home. He washes the clumps, separates out the beans and dries them in the sun.
"Some are smelly, others are not," he says "If you are lucky, you can gather up to kilo in a day. You just have to be hardworking."
December 28, 2004, Oliver Teves, Manila Standard
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Not just any animal. The coffee comes from beans eaten but undigested by the palm civet, a nocturnal, fruit eating cousins of the mongoose that roams tropical forest.
Civet coffee, which some aficionados consider among the world's best, sells in the United States for as much as $660 a kilogram or $300 a pound. Only 250 kg are produced worldwide each year, says Antonio Reyes, Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization Certifying Agency.
Although they normally eat sugar palm nuts, civets prefer the ripest coffee cherries during harvest season, which runs from December into March, but the beans pass through their system undigested and are deposited as sausage-like clumps onto the forest floor.
Reyes says the civet's digestive process, particularly enzymes in its stomach, probably gives the brew its distinctive flavor and aroma.
"It’s a special type of post-harvest processing. It ha been processed in a very natural way," he says.
Smelly or not in the forest, civet coffee in the cup has a "chocolatey aroma and the taste is bold and nutty," says Alvira "Vie" Reyes, a businesswoman who has branched into selling the exotic beans. Other fans described civet coffee as full-bodied with medium acidity and no bitter aftertaste.
Reyes and her husband, Basil, who are not related to Antonio Reyes, are trying to reheat local interest in producing civet coffee around Indang, a coffee- and sugar palm-producing town in Cavite province south of Manila.
Elders here say people used to gather civet dropping so their families could still have coffee even if they sold all their conventionally harvested beans.
Reyes says her company, which mainly makes vinegar from sugar palm sap, has produced only about 25 kg in two years and sold nearly all of it, keeping a little for their own use.
Antonio Reyes says Indonesia, where civet coffee is known as "kopi luwak," is the top producer, but he thinks it's an opportunity for the Philippines.
"If we can make a systematic collection of these droppings and produce them on a more systematic basis, maybe we can have a quantity available that we can produce for the export market," he says.
He says the Philippines, a coffee drinking nation but a small producer, should aim for "small volume but high value" coffee.
"We've been looking for types of coffee that we could sell in a niche market abroad because we don't have the quantity," he says. "But if these are coffees that are unique and different in taste, then we can get value for it."
Eleuterio Balido, a farmer who gathers sugar palm saps to make into vinegar for the Reyes’ company, says he sells a kilogram of dried civet beans for P1,000 ($18), about 45 times what he gets for conventional coffee beans.
The roasted beans are sold locally in 50-gram and 100-gram bottles for P250 ($4.50) and 500 ($9).
Balidio says he forages the forest floor and river banks for civet droppings near his home in Indang. "It's very difficult to look for it. It's like digging for gold."
Back home. He washes the clumps, separates out the beans and dries them in the sun.
"Some are smelly, others are not," he says "If you are lucky, you can gather up to kilo in a day. You just have to be hardworking."
December 28, 2004, Oliver Teves, Manila Standard
Proceed to Best of Pinoys News List
Global Filipinos to organize and harness economic, social, and political power of Filipinos through networking. Click to Pinoy
ituloy angsulong
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