The strange story behind the making of civet coffee could be an effective way to market it, if done right, said Chris Colby, vice president of marketing at Gourmet Business Solutions near Tampa. The gourmet coffee business is incredibly competitive, Colby noted, and it's important to stand out, especially when you are a newcomer. Bantai Civet Coffee's Butler, who lives in San Antonio, got the idea to sell the beans while working for the Peace Corps in the Philippines in 2006. He'd hear farmers from the Ifugao tribe complain that civets were eating their coffee beans. Unaware of their value, they viewed them as pests and set traps to kill them. At night, Butler saw civets in trees. "They're about the size of raccoons," he said. "It was just a neat, odd animal." After some online research, he discovered the existence of civet coffee. "It blew my mind completely," he said. He soon came up with a twofold mission: Help the coffee farmers in his village grow their business and keep the civet population from dying out. He and the farmers began collecting civet coffee beans. A light went on in Butler's head when the 2007 movie The Bucket List came out. In it, civet is the favorite coffee of a dying billionaire played by Jack Nicholson. The movie made Butler think there might be a lucrative retail market for civet coffee. He began selling it in the U.S. last year.
Philippines RPCV Dustin Butler sells civet coffee, which typically sells for $35 a cup
Bottoms up
Store's spilling the beans on pricey coffee with odd origins
By DAVID KAPLAN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Sept. 12, 2009, 10:59AM
Caption: Kopi Luwak (pronounced [ˈkopi ˈluwak]) or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Motit Coffee in the Cordillera, or Kape Alamid in Tagalog areas) and in East Timor (locally called kafé-laku). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee, which is made from coffee berries which have been regurgitated by local weasels. In actuality this alleged weasel is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet.
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $100 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited; only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year. Civet by law_keven Flickr Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
This weekend, Bering's Hardware is giving away samples of civet coffee, which typically sells for $35 a cup.
Considered the world's most expensive coffee, it has a smooth, rich taste.
Civet coffee may be the closest thing in real life to the fabled goose that laid the golden egg: To get that special taste, the beans must pass through the digestive system of a civet, a catlike creature found in Asia.
In other words, these high-end coffee beans come from the low end.
Bering's has started selling San Antonio-based Bantai Civet Coffee by the bag.
Bering's shoppers sampling civet coffee on Friday had a variety of reactions.
Customer Katie DeVries initially had no interest in trying it. She drinks only flavored coffee. But when Bantai Civet Coffee owner Dustin Butler described it as "the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world," she perked up and tried a cup.
"It's really good. It tastes very rich," DeVries said.
Then she saw a poster, illustrated with a civet, telling the story behind the coffee.
"What is this creature?" she asked. "What does it have to do with it?"
Butler told her of the coffee beans passing through the civet's digestive system.
"So, you pick the bean out of the feces?" asked a startled DeVries, who seemed to have lost enthusiasm for the beverage.
But her identical twin sister, Carrie DeVries, had no regrets sampling a coffee with such a remarkable story.
"I'm glad I got to try it," she said.
Bering's chief operating officer, Chris Schmitz, said the store agreed to carry civet coffee because "it was a unique opportunity to sell our customers something different - particularly during the fourth quarter when they're throwing holiday parties."
A connoisseur's quaff
Before deciding to carry the product, Schmitz said, Bering's held an informal sampling with some customers, explaining how civet coffee is made and asking for feedback.
"The only comments they made was the coffee was great, but they wanted to make sure that the animals weren't abused," he said.
"Obviously, it can be the butt of jokes, so to speak," Schmitz said.
For connoisseurs, drinking civet coffee may be no big deal. After all, foodies have been known to munch on gonads, calves' hearts, kidneys, brains and head cheese.
At Bering's, Bantai Civet Coffee in its pure form is priced at $85 for a 4-ounce bag and $320 for a special order 1-pound bag. Blended versions are $22 for 4 ounces and $65 for 12 ounces.
An upscale retail store with two locations, Bering's also sells nuts and bolts, Baccarat crystal, Ralph Lauren clothing for children, stationery, furniture and more.
Helping farmers, civets
The strange story behind the making of civet coffee could be an effective way to market it, if done right, said Chris Colby, vice president of marketing at Gourmet Business Solutions near Tampa.
The gourmet coffee business is incredibly competitive, Colby noted, and it's important to stand out, especially when you are a newcomer.
Bantai Civet Coffee's Butler, who lives in San Antonio, got the idea to sell the beans while working for the Peace Corps in the Philippines in 2006.
He'd hear farmers from the Ifugao tribe complain that civets were eating their coffee beans. Unaware of their value, they viewed them as pests and set traps to kill them.
At night, Butler saw civets in trees.
"They're about the size of raccoons," he said. "It was just a neat, odd animal."
After some online research, he discovered the existence of civet coffee.
"It blew my mind completely," he said.
He soon came up with a twofold mission: Help the coffee farmers in his village grow their business and keep the civet population from dying out. He and the farmers began collecting civet coffee beans.
A light went on in Butler's head when the 2007 movie The Bucket List came out. In it, civet is the favorite coffee of a dying billionaire played by Jack Nicholson. The movie made Butler think there might be a lucrative retail market for civet coffee. He began selling it in the U.S. last year.
‘The gold standard'
He established a wildlife preserve for the civets where Ifugao coffee farmers live and named the park after his former Peace Corps colleague Julia Campbell, who was killed in the area while off duty. He gives a portion of his profits to the preserve.
Starting next weekend Bantai Civet Coffee will also go on sale, by the cup, at Rao's Bakery in Spring, as well as at Rao's locations in Beaumont and Nederland.
Butler believes he is among a very small number of civet coffee distributors in the U.S.
He noted that civet coffee beans are cleaned vigorously and are de-shelled before being roasted, "much like how eggs come from funny places, too."
When customer Lois Van Wart approached his table, Butler said proudly of his coffee, "It's the gold standard."
She looked over his display. "These prices I'm noticing are pretty gold standard," Van Wart said. Intrigued, she put a $22 bag of the "Evening Blend" in her shopping cart.
Later, Van Wart was told how civet coffee is made. "Oh, my," she said. But after processing the information in her head for a moment, she said, "That's OK."
The bag stayed in her cart.
