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April 10, 2008
Posted: 1758 GMT
LONDON, England – It costs a hundred dollars a shot. It’s allegedly the most expensive coffee in the world. Even the royal family are said to drink it. But this still doesn’t detract from the fact that some of the beans that make it are selected from… cat excrement! Made by the Italian company De Longhi, Caffé Raro combines Jamaican Blue Mountain and Kupi Luwak, two rare coffees. It’s the Kupi Luwak coffee which has the particularly fascinating … if somewhat delicate origins. The natural “barista” which selects this bean is the palm civit cat, a badger-like creature which resides in Asia. It apparently has a natural affinity for “quality” coffee cherries. Its superior palate cannot digest the beans within the cherries and so nature ensures that they leave the body. But it is man who has decided that the beans in the civit cat droppings are not just safe for human consumption, but should actually be considered a delicacy. A delicacy which costs $100 a shot! The display for Caffe Raro at Peter Jones was a little underwhelming. Six boxes of the beans arranged in a pyramid formation. Some cups lined up. For something that costs so much, I half-expected an armed guard and a glass case. Marco Zacharia, the Strategic Operations Manager for Catering explained how the coffee sales were for a good cause. All money went to a cancer charity, Macmillan Support. It made the outrageous price slightly more palatable. David McKenzie, our correspondent, actually tried the coffee. He seemed to like it but confessed that it just tasted like good coffee. Worth a hundred bucks? He didn’t think so. But the place where the cat pooh coffee really caused a stir was in the CNN London newsroom. Our report was given priority in the editing queue. I was obliged to explain to give all the gory details to my colleagues about the delicate origins of this extraordinary coffee and we actually ended up buying a $100 tin for the anchors to try on air. But is it worth a hundred dollars a shot? Despite the seemingly painstaking production process and the rarity of this intriguing blend, it’s a lot of money to spend on a cup of coffee, even if it is for charity. However if it prompts some people with well-lined pockets to donate, then it’s probably an effective marketing ploy. But I, for one, am well and truly bored of thinking and writing about cat dung coffee. Posted by: Carol Jordan, CNN Producer
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It is indeed priced quite exorbitantly for something to be marketed as delicate so it can pique interests. Caveat emptor! 
$100 for cat dung coffee is ridiculous.