This gives new meaning to the term ‘steaming cup of joe.’

The Bean Stop in Eau Claire Market is set to start serving Kopi Luwak — better known as cat poop coffee — on Tuesday, one of the most unique blends available anywhere on the planet.

“This will appeal to two groups of people,” said owner Ken Cutler.

“Coffee connoisseurs and there’s probably a group of people who will have a cup just say they had a cup.

“It’s such an unusual, odd and unique product.”

Produced in the Doi Chaang region of northern Thailand, Kopi Luwak is made when the common palm civet — a small, tree-dweller Cutler said is closer to a raccoon than a cat — eats coffee cherries.

Once passed through the animal’s digestive system, workers pick the seeds out — by hand — and they are processed.

The end result is what Cutler describes as one of the most unique blends of java you can find.

“It’s very smooth,” he said.

“It’s got both a fruity and an earthiness, it’s almost got a natural sweetness to it which is very unusual.” And this kind of coffee doesn’t come cheap.

A single cup will set you back $25 (including tax) while a 50 gram tin will sell for $60.

Despite the high price, Cutler said they’ve already taken orders for 25 cups and have pre-sold 11 tins.

“It’s a very exclusive-type product,” he said.

Just finding Kopi Luwak is tough. “My understanding is there is only 1,000 kg produced each year so the supply is obviously very, very limited,” said Cutler.

“I’ve been able to obtain 41/2 pounds, which will translate into about 125 cups.”

dave.dormer@sunmedia.ca

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Many many years ago I lived for a time in Northeastern Thailand and heard of the civet cat and this unusual coffee. At the time, a whole different lifetime ago, my chief occupation was killing communists, and my beverage of choice was alcohol.

Later I earned an MBA, stopped killing people, and stopped drinking alcohol, don't remember the exact order. Never really used the MBA for much, I went to work as a code monkey in an Information Technology factory and produced programs of wondrous complexity to automate mundane tasks.

Have you ever heard the axiom: "If architects built buildings the way programmers build programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization."? -well I can't swear that whoever wrote that was NOT inspired by observing my work.

BUT, this morning I read the above article reminding me of the civet cats and their famous coffee. There's probably a wikipedia article, you can look it up. Then I said to myself "Ah Ha" - I have 5 cats that sit around the house all day eating and crapping. (One of my tasks is cleaning out their litter boxes.)

And I have that vintage 1979 MBA, heavy on marketing. I can already see a need in the US for a reasonably priced supply of Cat Poop Coffee straight from the source. - Our local grocery store sells cheap unground coffee beans in bulk. The advertising campaign is easy:

"Neighbor, how long's it been since you had a big, hot, steaming cup of Cat Poop Coffee? -- Well, that's too long!"

Watch out Starbucks...