Email Bag: The world's most expensive coffee is from beans cycled through a monkey's digestive system.

Question: I heard something today on 1010 Wins that there is a type of coffee made from monkey "poop." Can this be true?

Answer: In short, the answer to this question is - yes (and no). TruthorFiction.com says, Kopi Luwak is a very expensive type of coffee made from coffee beans passed through the digestive system of an Indonesian animal, but it's more like a cat than a monkey. According to a feature article by the Manila Coffee House, which sells the stuff, the people who harvest the digested beans don't really have to pick through cat litter to get it. The animal processes the beans and excretes them whole, unscratched, and without dung, for this reason, the idea that the coffee is made from "poop" is not totally accurate.

The animal is a palm civet, a dark brown tree-dwelling cat-like creature found throughout Southeast Asia. The scientific name is paradoxurus hermaphroditus.

According to the Manila Coffee House, the palm civet just happens to like to ingest the ripest and reddest coffee beans, which also happen to be the ones best for brewing. The cat eats the outer covering of the beans in the same way that is accomplished by de-pulping machines. Something happens to the beans in the journey through the cat's intestines that gives it a flavor that is celebrated by coffee drinkers.

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