Tuesday 1 September 2015

Coffee Club: Thuong Hang (cat poop coffee)

Coffee: Not sure, but supposedly kopi luwak
Origin: Vietnam - bought by a colleague's mum whilst on vacation
Price (per 250g): Not sure.  Expensive.

In a sense, I can hardly say how excited I was to try this coffee.  Kopi luwak is, without doubt, one of the most well know, exclusive, talked about luxury coffees in the work.  It's also amongst the world's most expensive coffees, as it has to be consumed by the Asian palm civet (known locally as a 'luwak') and then excreted (known colloquially as 'pooped out') before being gathered, roasted, ground, brewed and drunk.  Needless to say, this makes for some pretty funky coffee.  It also makes for a coffee that has Veblen good status – i.e. whose value is almost only generated by being valuable.  This shit (pardon the pun) is expensive.


The thing is, it's also a bit rank.  Sorry, but it is.

The smell of the beans is (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee.  It smells of something else, something artificial.  Pink wafers.  You remember those?  It smells of pink wafers – something which, once I had suggested it to the panel, everyone agreed on.  Once brewed this smell fades slightly but remains, pungent and lingering, annihilating much else.  But in the background there is something else, a distinctly earthy smell, vegetal - dare I say, like manure.  And there, too, is a treacle or unrefined sugar odour and a hint of something industrial, like rubber tyres.

The first thing you notice on drinking it, however, is the texture – not the taste.  This is an oily coffee – very smooth, but like Singaporean Kopi O, where the beans are roasted in margarine and sugar.  And it's thicker than normal coffee, even though it's been brewed with a cafetiere like everything else we've tried.  And it is black.  Jet black.  And dark.  All at once.


The taste is naturally quite sweet, but still with the bitter after tones we expect from coffee.  The biscuit flavour – and the pink wafer flavour – is still very much there.  There's also toasted almonds.  Does it taste of coffee?  I can hardly remember what coffee tastes like right now.  It's coffee, Jim, but not as we know it.  And not, I'm afraid, in a good way.

Score: 2/10

Caveat: Kopi luwak is really controversial, and with good reason.  What started as a coffee made from droppings found on the jungle floor is now an enormous industry.  Part of the justification for using coffee that's been pooped out by a civet cat is that the beastie is (supposedly) very discerning about what berries it eats, eschewing all but the ripest and brightest.  In a sense, therefore, luwak droppings are supposed to represent the very best of the best beans.  However, in the modern age and to keep up with enormous demand, luwaks are now kept in battery cages and force fed cheap beans that are then harvested.  SO (a) there's a pretty bad ethical thing going on here; and (b) the selective nature of luwak coffee is lost entirely.  So in summary what I guess I'm saying is that we just don’t know if what we've been drinking is any good at all.  So I am on the hunt for some ethically sourced luwak coffee that is affordable to see if it's any different and, if so, what's behind the buzz.


7 comments:

  1. I bought this coffee in Hoi An Vietnam and agree the demand is high and the cost is more expensive than most coffee so there is an enormous amount of it supposedly from the civet cat if they could possibly keep up with the demand. I'm suspect not and most likely all is not real. However my opinion of the flavor is a little sweet, chocolate flavor, with slight bitter overtones like un-roasted almonds. I like it because it definitely tastes different from most powdered coffees though I made mine into a latte being it is in powdered form.

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  2. I bought this coffee in Hoi An Vietnam and agree the demand is high and the cost is more expensive than most coffee so there is an enormous amount of it supposedly from the civet cat if they could possibly keep up with the demand. I'm suspect not and most likely all is not real. However my opinion of the flavor is a little sweet, chocolate flavor, with slight bitter overtones like un-roasted almonds. I like it because it definitely tastes different from most powdered coffees though I made mine into a latte being it is in powdered form.

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  3. I bought some last week in Da Nang with low expectations. On arrival back in Vientiane, Laos, I put it through my Espresso machine.
    Wow, the smell and flavour is magnificent. To the taste, slight chocolate flavour, not bitter, but you wouldn't say sweet. I'm impressed. It wasn't expensive. About $8 for 500gm.

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  4. Good Morning

    First of all I really like your site. : D

    And I found the information of this coffee?

    On what website can I buy this coffee, since I can not find it in Portugal?

    Thanks

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  5. i bought this coffee and absolutely LOVE it.. i have recently done some research that indicates its probably not the real thing.. because of the price, and fake poop coffee is very common in Vietnam, but i dont care its good, really really good.. I'm now on an internet hunt to try and buy some online!!!

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  6. bisa beli online dimana ya?

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  7. I disagree with the 2/10 score. One of the best coffees I've had. It has a chocolate hunt and tastes great. Will buy again

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