Give Me a Cuppa!

From The Age (the best newspaper in Australia, in my opinion), comes a story about perhaps the world's most expensive cup of coffee:

But Hervey's Range Heritage Tea Rooms located at the top of the Hervey Range, west of Townsville, now has a $50 cup of coffee on the menu.

The rare Kopi Luwak beans that make the expensive brew are retrieved from the droppings of the Luwak, a cat-like member of the civet family which is found in the jungles of Indonesia.

Tea room owner Allan Sharpe said the Luwaks eat the ripe coffee cherries, but the inner bean is not digested, meaning they can be retrieved from the animal's droppings.

The beans, which are then washed and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavours - cost $1250 per kilogram.

If you can get past the thought of drinking something extracted from animal droppings, the taste of the coffee is actually quite sweet and smooth.

I wonder how that would taste in a Starbucks Mocha...