Why Can Cat Poop Be Made Into Coffee and Why Is It So Expensive? A Look at Its Appearance and Price Per Jin
Cat poop is simply cat feces. And in the coffee market, coffee made from cat poop has become a hot commodity on the international market because of its mellow and delicious taste. So what does cat poop look like? Why can it be made into coffee? Why is it so expensive? How much does it cost per jin? According to Mr. Wu, owner of a coffee shop in Changsha, the price of cat poop coffee varies from place to place. The normal price for genuine cat poop coffee beans is about 2500 yuan per pound. Some shops sell knockoff versions that are much cheaper, around one thousand, while some are deluxe editions, ranging from four to five thousand up to ten thousand yuan per pound.
What does cat poop look like?
The normal feces of an ordinary cat should be brown or dark brown spheres or cylinders that make a thudding sound when they land in the litter box. The poop balls do not lose their shape and have a slight moist feeling on the outside.
Why can cat poop be made into coffee?
Cat poop coffee is produced using the feces of the Indonesian palm civet (a type of civet) as its raw material, hence the name “cat poop coffee.” This animal mainly feeds on coffee beans. After fermentation is completed in the palm civet's stomach, proteins are broken down, producing short peptides and more free amino acids, which reduces the bitter taste of the coffee. The feces then excreted become the main raw material. Since the coffee beans cannot be digested, they are excreted, and after washing and roasting they become cat poop coffee. Coffee critic Chris Rubin said, “The aroma is so rich and powerful, and the coffee is incredibly intense, almost like syrup. It has the thickness and mouthfeel of chocolate, and it lingers on the tongue for a long time, with a pure aftertaste.”
Why is cat poop so expensive?
The most expensive coffee in the world also originates from Indonesia. It is an extremely rare coffee, with only five hundred pounds produced each year, and its value is many times higher than that of Blue Mountain coffee. A 4-ounce cup of cat poop coffee can sell for 168 US dollars (about 1400 yuan)! The rarity of this coffee lies in the fact that it comes from the feces of a wild Indonesian civet. In order to obtain the precious “cat poop coffee beans,” local farmers in Indonesia catch civets and raise them in cages themselves, and some coffee merchants simply enclose an entire island to free-range these cats, letting them enjoy an environment of natural sunshine and rain. “The civets eat on their own and defecate on their own. You cannot force them to eat or force them to defecate, so the coffee beans in the excrement finally obtained are extremely valuable.