TeaChat

What she said

Hmmm, someone should be reminded that some high grown Taiwan oolong leaves are "enhanced" by cicadas.

This is too much like one of those reality shows for me. I will pass til ample peer pressure is applied.

Before getting into teas very recently... I used to be a long time coffee enthusiast (I still am and probably will be until I die)

There is a particularly expensive blend of coffee that this thread reminds me of very much. In fact it is the most expensive coffee bean in the world. Can costs in upwards of 600 dollars a pound for the best.

The coffee is called Kopi Luwak its from the Java/Philippines region of the world. A raccoon like creature called a Civet indigenous to this part of the world feeds on the coffee bean berries. As you might suspect coffee beans are hard shelled so they are hard to digest, when a civet poops, the beans come out whole. Of course they have been flavored (or tainted imho.. lol). The people of these regions painstakingly go around and extract out these coffee beans from the poo (which explains the high costs, its very time consuming... similar to truffle hunters and the cost of truffles)

I never tried this coffee... and it wasn't the price that scared me off, because as a coffee lover no price is to high. It was stories of the horrid flavor that scare me off (I heard everything from the flavor tasting like; mud, smoke, dirt... i can think of another 4 letter word it would taste like....). Anyhow, your thread about worm poop tea reminds of Civet poop coffee.

Thought I would share.

PS: I voted No as well

See last page for earlier references to that coffee.

edkrueger wrote:See last page for earlier references to that coffee.

opps I missed that sorry for duplication

http://www.sampletea.com/product/1960s- ... -loose-tea

Sampletea seems to have a version of this.

Has anyone tried it?

lebowitz wrote:I bought some of it, still have it in the cupboard. It's not too bad, very strong if you brew it like a normal tea, use about 1/2 teaspoon a cup. Has a strong minty taste to it. I think I bought it from generation tea.
It was certainly not disgusting.

Wow, generation tea has some very expensive teas for sale.

You mean these and....

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rNl5VRNLz_s/S ... G_4640.JPG

These. Yummmm!

I would encourage people considering buying Kopi Luwak coffee to do an image search of the civet farms before doing so. The things being done to meet the growing demand in the west for the beans are pretty horrid.

The more you know...