Kopi Luwak

It was Hannah's friend Gus who introduced us to competitive quizzing. Any Sunday he's round we usually spend half an hour on Thomas Eaton's quiz in the Weekend Guardian magazine. We had two today and had the usual poor to middling results but it was great craic. 

Bert got the one about posthumous Nobel Prize winners. I knew what was going on when you hit a sliotar with a camán and Hannah knew where Ajman was. Gus knew heaps about Mighty Joe Young and dart scores, so much that I had to tell him to shut up. 

But there was one question to which we all knew the answer or most of it.

Hannah asks,

Kopi luwak coffee has undergone what process?

Then says,

I actually know this.

And I say,

I do too.

And Gus says,

I know it too.

Bert was out attending a calving cow so he missed out on this one.

We all knew that it was beans that had been eaten, partly digested then defecated. Gus even knew which creature processed the beans.

Some sort of weasel.

Turns out he was wrong but sure it was a valiant effort.

I said,

We all knew that because we're so interested in dung!

Gus says,

I learned about it at a coffee seminar.

(He used to be a barista)

I say, 

So you're not interested in dung?

He says (defensively),

I am! 

Just then Bert comes in announcing that a fine bull calf has just been born and its Mammy loves it.

And his overalls are dung to the knees. We all look at him admiringly. 

Asian palm civet

I really do enjoy these Sunday intellectual exercises.

P.S. We should make a point of avoiding kopi luwak coffee, and not because it's incredibly expensive or because it has been through an animal's digestive system. The demand for the beans has led to civets being trapped, caged and treated inhumanely. The species is now under threat because of these practices.