Monkey Coffee
Yay, Sam from Veritas sent me an email asking if I wanted to come and taste some coffee eaten, digested and pooped out of some Indian monkeys!! Heck yeah I did …
It always seems to be an interesting experience – tasting coffee that has been collected out of the droppings of some exotic animal. Not really sure why, because when we saw the “logs” of digested Indonesian Civet cat beans, my tummy was a little uneasy at the thought of consuming some of it. Although, when you really think about it, surely roasting would burn off any remaining excrement. ewwww…
Well I’ve only just heard of the “Primate Reserve” and I must admit I was not very surprised to hear that some other animal has been feasting on coffee cherries to get their morning fix. Possibly also because our friend in Bali who so kindly showed us his sadly caged Civet cat, was telling us of his grand plans to have bigger and better animals digest the stuff. Our fascination with all things unique has started the peculiar trend of relying on wild animals instincts to pick only the ripest and sweetest cherry’s as both “Kopi Luwak” (Civet cat coffee) and “Primate Reserve” claim to do.
Here it is word for word (I should have really taken a picture) of how 49th Parallel describes the Indian Devon Estates “Primate Reserve” on their bags.
“This coffee is harvested by Rhesus monkeys, that store the cherries in their mouth pouch and eat them once they have retreated to the safety of trees. The actual coffee beans are harvested by humans off of the ground, after the monkeys discard them. The monkeys select only the ripest and most sweet cherries, resulting in a very sweet finish in the espresso. “
Sounds very very much like the civet cat stuff … only I don’t think they have the cool little mouth pouches these Rhesus monkeys have. I guess it’s a nice way of saying the monkey is picky so he gets the good stuff and then you get your crack at it once he poops it out. I’m not really completely convinced of this matter, not to mention how they make sure the monkey is eating the same varietals, estate, and so on. I can’t really say I am for “animal coffee”, as I immediately recognised in Indonesia that the high demand for this pricey commodity will surely soon result in more of these animals being caged.
Having said that, I was still intrigued and took Sam up on his offer. It was last week, so i’m jogging my memory here …
The shots of “Primate Reserve” that we tasted were distinctly heavy bodied with little to no acidity. They were incredibly syrupy, with a finish that was, in fact, very sweet. I didn’t really get the decadent chocolate flavours as 49th Parallel describes it. I could not quite pinpoint the taste; it was sweet but earthy at the same time. I know this is all sounding good, but really, I remember distinctly not really enjoying it. I also found the aroma reminded me of wet tobacco in a bad way, nothing like the sweet fruity kind.
Anyways, in being fair, we only had one pound of three week old coffee. I takes me a while to find the sweet spot in a new blend or origin, and working with the anfim grinders of which I am not accustomed to, gave me little room for error. I’ve heard people rave about this particular estate, from this particular roaster …
...but alas… exotic animal coffee still hasn’t won me over.
Jen
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