Kopi Luwak

[cheebacheeba]

I tried it today.

For further info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

Nope, not a joke.
Just happened to hear of a place that sells it here.
$9 per cup...AUD is pretty much the same as USD now to give you an idea.
Had a machiato - They served it with some mineral water with lime to palate cleanse prior to drinking, and brown rock sugar to stir in.

Of course I was pretty apprehensive at first, though one would assume the preparation is subject to some pretty strict cleaning standards.

What do I have to report back?
It was a damn good, smoothe coffee. Very rich without much bitterness at all, in fact the coffee flavour was almost accentuated.
I'd recommend TRYING it.
I mean of course I'm not about to drink this and only this - a GOOD coffee made by a good barista needs nothing more than just that...though, yes I have to admit it was very nice.

[crabapple]

Sounds awesome!

But lemme get this straight....so, those half-digested squirrel beans are sort of like...poo nuts??

[ferretchucker]

Hmm...I wonder if I would try this. I like to think I would try most things once...

Was there anything totally unique in its flavour that set it apart from most good coffees?

[cheebacheeba]

Nothing "unique" as such.
The thing is, it was like you can have a really STRONG coffee with none, or very little of the associated bitterness. So the flavour of the coffee is accentuated without it bitchslapping you.
Other than that, it had a very smoothe mouthfeel - but, that there could have just been about the baristas skills.

On account of how the bitterness (or lack thereof) factor plays out, I'd like to see them try to do the same thing with cocoa beans. I can imagine a very intense rich dark chocolate with no bite, that would be great.