auntielicious tries: Alamid Coffee

My friend Marga was around the Southern area and came for the sole purpose of trying "the caviar of coffee" after learning from it in her MBA class.  She told me it was called alamid coffee -- civet coffee -- because it the civet, an exotic cat, would eat the coffee cherries and after digesting them, would have these coffee beans in its droppings.  And yes, that was the content of this exotic and rare brew.

I tried it.  I wasn't shocked.  I was curious. We Filipinos eat a lot of stuff and aren't queasy when we make "tusok the fishball," right?  Besides, this would be useful in case I tried something exotic when I join The Amazing Race.

In the South of Manila, this is available in 18 Days Cafe in Insular building in front of Festival Mall in Alabang.  The brew is only good for 18 days upon roasting.  You can buy an entire can for PHP2,400.  But you can be a member and get it for cheap.  But for having a nice cup of this unique brew, I got a cappuccino for PHP240.  (Small cup.)  That's twice the usual signature coffee, but hey, it's rare.

Marga wanted to smell it.  They let us do that.  It did not smell like civet droppings.  They smelled like a fine roast of beans.  While the manufacturers say it has a "strong, sweet, dark chocolatey taste" to me it taste bitter as dark chocolate but didn't seem strong.  Not as strong as the barako blend but it didn't have the tangy and mildly sour aftertaste as barako.  It tasted to me like it's fine and smooth, not robust.  Seems like a good brew to me.  Plus, they like to help farmers who discovered this kind of brew which sounds really, really good to me!

But I guess I'm not much of a coffee drinker.  Marga was asking me what I thought of it and all I can say was, "It's very smooth.  I guess civet poo-poo isn't that bad."  My sister who doesn't even like to look at the photo of the coffee beans I took a picture of will try it.  (Because I am coercing her to.)