On to that coffee, kopi luwak. The beans have indeed gone in one end of an animal and come out the other, and guess which animal? None other than the civet, although in this case we're talking about the Indonesian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) rather than its perfume-ingredient-producing cousins (Viverra civetta and Viverra zibetha). The palm civet prowls about the coffee plantations of Indonesia, seeking out and eating only the ripest, most primo coffee "cherries" (the sweet pulpy fruit encasing the coffee beans). The indigestible bean passes through the animal's system and is excreted, passing within millimeters of our friends the perineal glands. In the old days it was then gathered by the poorest Indonesians and brewed into coffee. But then somebody had a brainstorm: You know, if we play our cards right, we can sell this to white people for $110 a pound! Behold, it has come to pass. The coffee is said to have a rich, full-bodied, almost syrupy quality that supposedly results from fermentation in the digestive tract, blah blah blah. They say it's quite tasty if you can ignore the fact — no sense *****footing around here--that it's made from ****
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