One of the best headlines I've seen all year appeared this week: CAT DUNG COFFEE "MAY BE UNCLEAN".No shit, Sherlock! On the face of it, you'd think that was fairly self-explanatory - and thus 'end of story'. Turns out (1) the item IS actually talking about coffee from cat poo, and (2) the "cleanliness" aspect is religion-based.
To explain: the world's most expensive coffee is called Kopi Luwak. It's made from hard coffee beans that're eaten by civet cats (a mongoose relative), fermented in their stomachs, then pooped out, extracted and roasted. Kopi Luwak is highly prized for its smooth flavour and bitterless aftertaste, sometimes fetching well over $US440 (NZ$630) per kilo. Only 450kg are produced annually worldwide.
Now...Indonesia's top Islamic body may ban its followers from drinking said brew, over concerns it's "unclean" religion-wise. If the farmers actually clean the beans before they're ground, then under Islamic law, the beans will be ruled halal (ie: ok for followers to consume). But why the mullahs are mulling over this purr-fect cuppa now, when the process has been around since at least the Dutch colonial days, is anyone's guess!
Speaking of cats, the ashes of the cat that was in the opening credits of Britain's longest running soap opera Coronation Street for 11 years, are to be auctioned this week and expected to reach £150. Frisky beat 5,000 other cats in 1990 to win a place in the opening credits, crouched atop a pigeon loft. Frisky died in 2000 aged 14, but continued to appear in the opening credits until 2001 and earned thousands of pounds for charity from personal appearances over its lifetime. Eeee, by goooom!
PS: 22 July 2010 - Frisky's remains sold for £700 – five times the estimate!
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