I had an interesting evening last weekend. I was invited to attend an evening event for bloggers, which was held at Kangaroo Coffee, a relatively new coffee shop here in Davao. The event consisted of several hours of enjoying great coffee, and great food from the people at Kangaroo Coffee. But, the highlight of the evening was a product launch, a new coffee offering at the shop. What was this new coffee? Civet coffee. Do you know what civet coffee is? Keep reading I will tell more about that shortly.
The evening started out with Mark, one of the owners of Kangaroo Coffee showing us a PowerPoint presentation focusing in on civet coffee: what it is, how it is produced, and all kinds of other information about the product. Okay, okay, I know many of you are wondering just what this civet coffee is. Well, there is a small animal here in Asia called the civet, some describe it as a cat, others use other descriptions. In fact, it is part of the mongoose family, and about the size of a very large house cat. Well, this animal, the civet, eats ripe coffee beans. After eating these ripe beans, the beans go through the digestive system of the civet, and are excreted by the animal. After the excretion, people search the forest floor for these digested beans. They are collected, washed, roasted, ground, and used to make coffee. This is the most expensive type of coffee in the world. If you buy civet coffee to make it home, the grounds cost more than $100 per pound! Currently there are only three countries in the world that offer civet coffee: Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
After Mark finished his presentation, it was time to eat! Kangaroo laid out a really nice meal for us. They served us two different types of pasta: a pasta with smoked fish, and a penne pasta, both of which were excellent. There was also wonderful bread roll to accompany that which was also excellent. They really spread out a ton of desserts, though, everything you can think of from cookies to cakes to cheesecake. Each of these was absolutely great. I’d like to offer my thanks to the people at Kangaroo Coffee for such a great dinner.
Now, what about the civet coffee? Did I drink it? If so, how did I like it? Well, I have to say it was very good, and yes of course I did try it! The flavor was very strong, but very smooth too. Kangaroo will start offering this within this next week at their shop. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. At least give it a try once and see what you think, unless you’re to freaked out about the fact that an animal has eaten it before you drink it. If that does freak you out, try to get over it at least enough to give the coffee a try, my prediction is that you’ll be glad you tried it. When they start selling the coffee to the public, it will be 300 pesos per cup. Yes, that’s expensive, but, this is the world’s most expensive coffee after all. I believe there’s some cachet to just being able to say that you had it before!
Would you drink it?
Kangaroo Coffee is located on Tionko Street, not far from the Central Bank here in Davao City.
It almost reminds me of when i lived in washington and worked for Boeing. Boy do they take there coffee serious up there or what? I remember walking into a coffee shop and there must have been 100 different kinds of coffee on the menu, I just had one question…”Don’t you have just a regular cup of joe?” 🙂
I have heard of civet coffee before but did not know it could be found in the Philippines. When I am in the Philippines, I am in Cebu. Do you know of anyplace in Cebu that serves it? I want to try it but don't know when I would have the time to travel to Davao.
Hi George – it's been several years since I've been to Cebu, so I'm not really sure who would be serving civet coffee there. I feel fairly certain that you could find it there, though.
Hi Bob- about one year ago I read an article about a restaurant called the Heritage tea rooms, which is located in the rainforest area west of Townsville here in Queensland Australia, who are sellin "cat poo" coffee.
Yes it is civet cofee, and I think they are the only restaurant in Aus selling it. They get their coffee from Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, and if you are wondering about the price?, $50 AUD per cup, no I'm not kidding ,and acording to the coffee connoisseurs is worth every cent.
Personally I have not tried it yet, so maybee when I am in Philippines next year I might drop in for a coffee. 🙂
I'll try anything once…new experinces keep the mind invigorated and in some cases…the bowels regular !!!
a thought just occured to me Bob….at a $100.00 a pound…does it HAVE to be a cat?? I could get used to eating coffee beans if you know what I mean…..
Hi Hudson – and I lived in Washington state for about 15 years before moving here. Those boys up around Seattle take their coffee seriously!
Hi anthony – wow, $50 per cup! And imagine I got mine for free!
Hi Brian – it keeps your bowels regular? I hope that the bowels of the civet are also regular! 😆
I'm not going to touch that second comment!
I've read quite a bit on civet coffee in the past few months including a woamn and her husband here in the Philippines (sorry I can't rermember the city/province, perhaos dear wife will recall later) who are major producers for export.
It's not my cup of tea, tho mix a metaphor or two, but I wish those who enjoy it the best and it is certainly yet another business idea. There's coffee poroduction there in Mindanao as well as some great coffee production land in Batngas and Cavite just outside Manila. You _could_ get some really great coffee in the Philippines (with or without civet assistance) but the current problem isn't climate land or agriculture skills, it's the visons and faith to change the image from a '"ain't got none" third-world country to a producer of quality products.
Anyway, time for another civbet-less cup.
This is classic, Jack Nicholson's character in "The Bucket List" has endless praise for this rarest of beverages (Kopi Luwak): http://youtube.com/watch?v=hBAdHQYnGIU http://youtube.com/watch?v=VVJqwCdzZnw
Hi Bob,
As you know, I'm in the coffee business, and it's nice to see an article on coffee from the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the only countries in the world that grows the 4 main coffee varieties — Arabica, Robusta, Excelsia, and Liberica.
As you report, there is also a thriving civet cat coffee bean industry in the Philippines. I know that it is being harvested in Mindanao, and also in Kalinga province up in Luzon. I have tried the Indonesian variety, and hope to try the Philippine variety at the annual Coffee Expo held in Manila. It is really nice to see the Philippines showcasing the revival of their coffee industry which had gone into serious decline in the 1980's. We're going through a bit of a renaissance it seems!
Thanks for this post!
Hi Dave Starr – I'm guessing you've never tried the civet coffee? I do understand, though!
Indeed, there are some excellent coffee production in many areas of the Philippines, particularly those areas that are higher in elevation, and thus cooler.
Hi Gary – thanks for sharing those links! I just went and watched the clips in their great. I seen that movie before, and it's really a good one! The Bucket List as I recall?
Hi Martin – the particular civet coffee that I tried is harvested on the foothills of Mount Matutum in South Cotabato province, not far from General Santos city. I would imagine it's similar to the one you tasted from Indonesia.
why do u like davao
Hi Bob,never tasted it yet,maybe one day.It is available in UK at a few select places.I shudder to think of the price here,would imagine around $60+ a cup.For interest, the most expensive tea in the world is Silver leaf grown in India's mountain regions.Any tea grown in Phils? regards Chas.
Wow..$100 for a pound for coffee…I don't think I could go for that.
Of course, I've never understood how somebody can pay $200 for a bottle of wine. Can it actually be eight times better than a $25 bottle?
kamusta bob
wow i would have to say no to civet coffee.that doesent sound good to me as i love the mountain grown coffee from columbia.as for the desserts and such sounds pretty good.did you ever get the chance to eat at lazranz in panabo?
'salamat bob
oops bob i spelled it wrong 😆 its lafranz restraunt.
salamat kayuuu
Hi frank – actually, I think if you read all of my articles on the site, you'll have an answer to your question.
Hi chas – gut at an expensive cup of coffee! I'm not aware of teas grown here, but I'm sure there must be some.
Hi Joe Parisi – ha ha. I think the wine connoisseurs would be able to tell the difference between the cheap and the good wine. I'm like you though, one bottle is as good to me is the other.
Hi Ron W – civet coffee is indeed grown in the mountain, the only difference is that it passes through the civet before it reaches your cup!
Hi Ron W – I haven't made it to Panabo yet. It may be a few months, but I'll stop in there sometime.
Hi Bob and Chas,
There is a Taiwanese investor who has set up a tea plantation in the foothills of the mountains around Gingoog City in northern Mindanao. It's a new plantation and I'm not sure if it is producing yet. He is growing tea of the Oolong variety.
Hi Martin – Thanks for sharing that, Martin. Good to know.
Hi Bob – too funny, as I just watched "The Bucket List" last night.
I'm not in a big hurry to try this. I suppose if someone bought me a cup, I'd give it a try but I don't think I'm going out of my way to track it down. Not that I'm concerned that it comes from waste so much, I just tend to stay away from consumable things that are highly priced because of their rarity. I've never had the income to play in that field, or the mindset to accept it. Not that this is that expensive.
Oh Bob! If only Civet coffee already sold before as a special coffe we could able to earn a little bit more money. We kept collecting that before. You know in 1970s and 1980s we had a coffee plantation (Arabeca) in Balutakay Bansalan Davao del Sur. It is very nice montainous place with a very cold temperature located not far from Mt Apo. We spent our school vacation there helping my father cleaning the land and harvesting the coffee. There were times we were expected a lot of red coffee to be harvested but when we arrived there we thought somebody was harvesting partially already. For the first time that my father told us to go around to find and collect the civet coffee andt after he explained that it's already a bowels of the "Milu" (a civet name given by the people in Balutakay) which he described it like a rat, oh man!Just a thought alone "bowels" was not a pleasure for me to collect them. We found heaps of coffee around its either on top of the tree trunk, on top of the big stone or just scattered on the ground. There were heaps which very clean to look at but there were heaps hmmmn . . . sorry maybe i have only a very sensitive stomach. Imagine I was very much aware that the civet coffee never be mixed to the coffe for our own consumption hahaha. Now, some people are willing or proud to pay a lot of money just for a few gram or just for a cup of civet coffe. The "Milu" or civet animals fascinated me at that time and made me curious how they really look likes but I never see them despite of so many kilos civet coffee collected.
Hi Randy C – like you, I probably wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't been offered it free. And, now that I've had it, just being able to say that I've had that is enough, I probably will never order it again!
Hi Luz B – very interesting about your coffee plantation. So, the civet were already active at that time!
Thank heavens, I am a tea drinker. LOL!
Anyway I did see some civet coffee being sold in Manila, a small container was like 500 or 800 pesos, so it's pretty reasonable.
I guess those were the excreted beans, hehehe.
Hi Cheryll Ann – ha ha. I guess there are benefits to drinking tea too!nice to hear from you Cheryll Ann.
IS the taste similar to regular coffee or is it a completely different taste. Does it have caffeine in it?
Yes, Bob, the taste is similar, a bit smoother. It certainly has caffeine.