If you're new to our blog and wonder what all the fuss is about weasel coffee . . .
French colonists, realising that conditions were ideal for coffee cultivation, first planted coffee in the South Central Highlands region of Vietnam. The coffee also proved popular with a local resident: the common palm civet (Paradoxurus Hermaphoditus), a weasel-like animal, which quickly developed a taste for the sweet, fleshy outer layers of the coffee 'cherries' - the fruit of the coffee bush.
It was found that the fruit seeds, what we know as coffee 'beans', passed though the civet largely undigested and the resulting beans, when washed and sun-dried, had undergone a remarkable change to produce a uniquely smooth and delicious flavour. Perhaps this was because the civet would choose only the best and ripest beans to eat, but also because the beans had been modified by enzyme reactions on their journey.
Read the whole story
here.
