Saturday, November 20, 2004

Staff at Battersea see "RED"

I came across an interesting article with video footage on a dog responsible for baffling staff at a Battersea Dogs Home which i thought i should share. Apparantly, for as long as 2 weeks, the staff here would arrive to work in the mornings to find food fallen everywhere with dogs out of their cages, running amok. Since no one could come up with a logical explanation, they decided to install surveillance cameras in the corridor to capture the culprit. The big question looming high- "'WHO LET THE DOGS OUT'"? :)

It turned out that a three-year-old lurcher (by the name of Red) had been unlocking his kennel using his nose and teeth before using the same technique for releasing upto 9 of his “favourite” canine companions, from their cages for regular midnight feasts. He would choose his mates to let out, with Lucky the dog, who he was found with, being the first to be freed. Though after this discovery, Red’s kennel had been made more secure to stop him escaping, this incident was claimed to be pretty unique, as lurchers aren't usually known for their intelligence.

On the bright side, after the video (of the daring “dog”break) was aired around the world, the pound was inundated with calls from people offering to give Red a home. The staff also hope the added publicity will bring new homes for Red’s other canine friends as well. Yeah, hope they end up being as lucky as him!

Monday, November 15, 2004

Kopi Luwak!

It’s common knowledge that coffee grows in several countries in the world and some particular varieties are noted for their excellence n fine reputation. Often, this is based on rarity and incredibly fine flavor. Several coffees including Jamaican Blue Mountain, Kona, and Tanzanian Peaberry, command a premium price due to quality and availability.
However, there is one coffee that beats them all in uniqueness of flavor, rarity and strangeness of processing. Any ideas which one that could be? This coffee, known as Kopi Luwak, is so rare that there is perhaps only as little as 500 Lbs of it available per year n so uncommon is Kopi Luwak that some gourmet coffee sellers doubt its very existence. The uniqueness is reflected in the price and no other coffee even comes close. Kopi Luwak sells for $75 per quarter pound which seems an unimaginably high price for a quarter pound of coffee, but it’s the special "Processing" that makes it so incredibly rare. Any guesses how that’s done?
Let me start at the beginning. An animal known as the palm civet, a dark brown tree-dwelling cat-like creature found throughout Southeast Asia (scientific name being paradoxurus hermaphroditus) is known for climbing into coffee trees and eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. It’s claimed that the civet is simply an expert at choosing the best beans. Once the coffee cherries are consumed, it is partially pre-digested and at some point of time excreted by them. These are then collected and.. guess what? are processed to become the rarest coffee in the world. It appears the enzymes in the animals' stomach, appear to add something unique to the coffee's flavor through fermentation. To make it a little bearable, (for those of u who’ve begun cringing reading this till now), once the coffee cherries are excreted, the people who collect these don't really have to pick through litter to get them. Even after the digestion process they are fairly intact, excreted whole, unscratched, and without dung, making the process easier. Some respite eh?
K so to go on, what began as, presumably, a way for the natives to get coffee without climbing trees has evolved into the world's priciest specialty coffee. Hmm the next question being, how does it taste? (that is if anyone has the courage to take a sip after knowin where its been) Well it's claimed to be really good,heavy with a caramel taste, almost syrupy, earthy n has a unique musty aroma. It has been proven to roast up real nice too n gets its unusual flavor due to the natural fermentation the coffee beans undergo in the paradoxurus' digestive system. Maybe cause the stomach acids and enzymes are very different from fermenting beans in water.
For those who swear by the Kopi Luwak.. they feel its worth every penny. Well for some others, a close knowledge of its origin may turn them off drinking this precious bean, worse still, how about put one off drinking coffee altogether?! Any takers for this one? Not me, thats for sure!