Posted on January 10, 2011 // 0 Comments

Have you ever tasted paradoxurus coffee? Let’s make it simpler and it goes a little something like this: Have you ever tasted Civet Coffee? If your answer to both questions is NO and you consider your self a coffee aficionado, then this article is for you. Here, we will be talking about what a paradoxurus is all about and what its wonderful gift to coffee lovers like me is.

Paradoxurus is commonly known as common palm civets. Other common names include Musang (commonly heard in the Cordilleras in the Philippines) and Toddy Cats in some palm regions.

When I had my vacation in one of my relative’s town in Indonesia, I had this experience having close encounters with these small marsupial creatures. These animals usually rack the ceiling of the house and would usually emit sickening sweet smell that reminds me of a skunk. These animals are somewhat pesky they don’t care even when they almost hit somebody else in the house while they are sparring and playing. They also act like squirrels and even have that character of invading my uncle’s house.

Paradoxurus is commonly found in the Himalayas and Southern China, Malayan Peninsula, and in the Philippines. But more commonly, these animals are found in the islands of Indonesia. These animals are highly adaptive and they easily survive in dense forests, agricultural places, and even in the company of humans.

Palm civets are considered as nocturnal animals and they usually hunt for preys during the night. They are strong and expert climbers and that they usually feed on small insects and pests, pulpy and fleshy fruits, and other types of seeds. These animals are fond of palm saps so they a re called palm civets. The sweet liquor from the palm sapling is called ‘toddy’, the other name for these animals – toddy cats.

Now here is the most important part of this article. Don’t you know that palm civets are the origins of the world’s most expensive coffee? This may sound funny but it is. The civets are where the world’s most unique and most expensive coffee really comes from.

Since the civet cats love climbing on trees, the coffee trees are one of their favorite trees to climb on. These animals simply love the read and ripe coffee berries where they usually feed on. These animals eat these coffee berries and what is left is nothing but the civet droppings that farmers used to collect every morning. These droppings are actually composed of bean clumps which are actually the coffee beans from the coffee berries they ate the other day. The expensive paradoxurus coffee or Kopi Luwak is supposedly produced from these clumped beans.

I had the chance to observe many farmers who own coffee plantations and how they collected and gathered these precious fecal matters. I watched every procedure they had to make to produce the world’s most unique and distinct flavored coffee.

Personally, I had a taste of paradoxurus coffee and from that moment on until now, I see to it that I always have my civet coffee ready which I usually drink on special occasions and whenever I like to.

Category : Blog