I'll have a Venti, No fat, No Foam, No Whip, Extra Hot, Cat-Monkey Dung Latte

How much is a good cup o' joe worth to you? In our crazed caffienated society no price seems to be too high. Kopi Luwak, the world's rarest and most expensive coffee beans are harvested in Indonesia. Kopi Luwak are the most famous type of Robusta coffee beans and are considered a gourmet coffee. Extremely rare, it is estimated that as little as 500 pounds of Kopi Luwak coffee beans are available each year. It is such a highly desired coffee that it sells for $150 per quarter pound. This is an unimaginable high price for coffee but the story behind Kopi Luwak will make you understand why it's such a desired product. It will also reinforce the belief that truth is stranger than fiction.

The way in which the beans for Kopi Luwak are harvested is tre bizzaro. Meet the palm civet a common marsupial. These animals tend to climb coffee trees in this area and eat only coffee cherries. As coffee cherries are a major part of its diet (along with insects, small mammals, and fruits), they were long considered a pest in this region. However, a remarkable thing happens when they eat these coffee cherries. Due to their digestive systems, the palm civet is only able to digest the softer outer shell of the coffee cherry. However, little layers of the coffee cherries' remain with the inner coffee bean remaining in tact. Somehow in this whole process, the enzymes in their stomachs add extra flavor to the coffee bean through fermentation. This has resulted in one of the most sought after types of coffee available.

In case any of that flew over your head let me sum it up for you. The most expensive coffee in the world, $600.00 per pound, is found in the crap of some jungle monkey cat that has flavoured and fermented it with it's stomach acids and digestive enzymes. I wish that this was all a sick joke invented by yours truly, but its unfortunately not. For more info click here.