The tasty fats in cat poo coffee
This was a surprisingly fascinating thing to research and write. The wildly-expensive and exotic brew of civet coffee is made from beans that have been eaten, digested and excreted by civet cats across Asia. It's a strange and possible dangerous practice. These researchers are helping to work out what makes the coffee taste distinctive, while hoping to protect the welfare of the civet cats. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03467-w Fun fact: civet coffee isn’t the only delicacy that utilizes animal excretions. Thai Black Ivory coffee uses beans eaten and pooped by elephants; Peruvian coati coffee has passed through a coatis, a local relative of the racoon; some favour coffee beans that have been excreted by bats , and some Chinese teas are enhanced with insect droppings . Honey comes from bee excretions, and Argan oil from the pits of olive-like fruits consumed by goats in Morocco .