A Taiwanese research team has found a way to mimic the flavor of civet coffee — a beverage traditionally produced from the beans of digested coffee cherries found in the scat of wild common palm civets in Indonesia.
The passage of the beans through the civets’ intestines is said to give the coffee a unique flavor which is highly prized by connoisseurs, and the resulting product sells for gourmet prices.
National Pingtung University of Technology and Science vice dean Hsieh Pao-chuan (謝寶全), who headed the team, said that due to the questionable authenticity of much of the civet coffee on the market, and the poor quality of beans produced by caged civets, beans that can be proven to have come from wild civets are the most highly prized.
On a field trip to Indonesia with a team of scientists from the university’s department of food science, Hsieh said he had managed to extract 136 strains of bacteria from the intestines of civets, and had isolated 16 which had particular effects on Mandheling coffee beans. The researchers monitored the changes with experiments using gas chromatography.
After seven years of experimentation, Hsieh and his team managed to perfect a process for treating beans that produced “civet coffee” from the laboratory.
According to Hsieh, the lab-produced civet coffee has a strong aroma of fruit and flowers, and tastes of caramel, cinnamon and chocolate, adding that the coffee had a fruit-like hint of acidity in its aftertaste.
Fermentation of the lab-produced civet coffee is entirely managed by the lab and takes between 16 and 24 hours, Hsieh said, adding that compared with the original, their product is more sanitary and has only half the caffeine content.
The laboratory is currently pricing its “civet coffee” at NT$4,000 per 0.45kg, Hsieh said, adding that if the lab found ways to mass-produce it the price would drop.
Coffee shop owners said that at the price the team is currently asking, each cup of coffee would cost about NT$100, making the beverage a luxury product.
A free exhibition aimed at teaching the public about air-raid shelters and basic emergency personal protection skills today opened on the concourse level of the Taipei MRT's Ximen Station. The event, organized by the National Police Agency, aims to raise awareness about disaster preparedness ahead of nationwide air raid drills scheduled from July 15 to 18, which are part of broader urban resilience exercises. The exhibition outlines the recommended actions people should take depending on whether they are indoors, commuting or outdoors when air-raid sirens sound. It also teaches people how to equip air-raid shelters and pack emergency "go bags," with displays
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
RSS