“Coffee-ces”? Never again!

If you are addicted to coffee and can’t resist a gourmet drink, you may celebrate this.

Have you ever heard of kopi luwak? It is regarded as one of the most expensive coffee in the world.The pound cost over US$ 600! Its production process includes passage of grains by the civet’s gut. Civet is a mammal from Indonesia and that looks like something between a cat and a skunk. Civet eats the sweetest beans and the beverage from their faeces (below) acquires unique flavors. Digestion and microorganisms present in the animal gut are responsible for the transformation.

Historically the civets caused losses to the industry, because they eat the plant. To avoid waste, the coffee growers began to collect the beans coming out of these animals. It is not known exactly why, but someone tried the drink made with these beans. And since then it became a rare delicacy.

The dark side of this industry is that once they found this “gold mine”, the poor animals were caged. As the animals are forced to eat and produce more, the process was nicknamed  “foie gras”  of the coffee “. An allusion to the foie gras, a French cooking ingredient, in which geese are forced to eat and their livers swell of fat, hence its intense flavor. With that in mind, two French scientists founded the Afineur and created a method that mimics the conditions of civet’s gut. The result is a product without faeces, without animal suffering and priced around US$ 50 per pound, well below the original.

Coffee can be used not only for drinking but also for printing, as filaments for 3D printers. The material, of the American startup 3Dom, besides being ecologically sustainable, also exudes an amazing aroma while printing.

If you prefer something more practical, you may get a dose of powdered coffee. The principle, as we told about here is to ingest small particles containing exactly what you want. The company guarantees that the product tastes good, but lack the pleasure of taking a break at work for a hot cup, that is priceless!

References: Revista Cafeicultura, Wired, Digital Trends, Geek