Always looking for the next great brew, many coffee aficionados have turned to a vulgar-sounding but delicious blend that originated in southeast Asia: kopi luwak, or "cat poop coffee."
The beans are gathered from the feces of the civet, a cat-like species whose digestive track provides a sort of natural fermentation process for the coffee beans. Business Insider labeled kopi luwak the "biggest trend in luxury coffee," and according to NPR, the coffee can cost as much as $60 for 4 ounces of beans.
However despite the price, some say the drink may not be all it is cracked up to be.
"It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless," critic Tim Carman wrote in the Washington Post. "Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn’t finish it."
One expert says the coffee is becoming so expensive not because of its taste, but because of its scarcity.
"It's incredibly expensive because it's so rare," coffee historian Mark Pendergrast told NPR, "not because it's such a wonderful coffee."
Amazingly, there is actually a sizable market for "animal feces coffee." In addition to cat poop coffee, both bird poop (Jacu Bird) and elephant dung (Black Ivory) coffee have made headway into the international market in recent years.
(H/T to The Huffington Post)
