Ewww… Do they at least wash them? CAN you even wash that off?! It’s a good thing I’m not much of a coffee drinker. ha ha.

Just checked the article. I see they are now caging them.

Yeah, I even recently watched a ustream show host drink a cup of it.
Last time I saw a documentary on it, they showed natives collecting the digested beans off the ground but, because of the amount of money involved, they’ll likely be caging the animals and feeding them the beans soon (if they’re not already).
(Until one of the coffee companies artificially reproduces the taste that is.)

“Costing hundreds of dollars a pound, these beans are found in the droppings of the civet, a nocturnal, furry, long-tailed catlike animal that prowls Southeast Asia’s coffee-growing lands for the tastiest, ripest coffee cherries. The civet eventually excretes the hard, indigestible innards of the fruit — essentially, incipient coffee beans — though only after they have been fermented in the animal’s stomach acids and enzymes to produce a brew described as smooth, chocolaty and devoid of any bitter aftertaste.”

Is this gross or what?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/asia/18civetcoffee.html?_r=0