The skinny on coffee here

When we were at the Phoenix Hotel in Jogja, I remarked to our favorite waitress, Ernie, on how good the coffee was.  She did the sales pitch, like a good employee, and showed us the pretty little boxes that they sell.  We decided to purchase two for gifts that she said would be waiting for us when we checked out.  When I picked them up on our last day and went to pay for them they were $180.00 American.  These boxes were about 6"x4"x 3" and most of that was packaging.  You may be surprised to know that I changed my mind on that particular purchase.  It would have come to 1/4 of our total bill for 4 nites, all of our meals, 2 massages and our bar bill.  I knew there had to be a story here.  On the field trip I asked Chitrek what the deal was with the coffee.  She tells me it was probably Luwak coffee.  The explanation....  coffee berries are fed to the Asian Palm Civet, a type of animal similar to a weasel.  They eat them for the fleshy pulp.  Once in the digestive tract the beans are fermented and pass thru the intestine and are defecated.  These beans are touted to be the best coffee beans in the world and sells for $700 U.S. per kilo.  The civet is farmed, often under cruel conditions where they are force fed.  Wild Luwak coffee is supposed to be much tastier than the farmed but there are no regulations here with labeling so farmed is often labeled as wild.

I think the anti sealing movement should concentrate on animals that are not quite as cute as seals but suffer in less palatable living conditions.  At least our seals enjoy some freedom.