Kopi Luwak from Thailand in Canada...

It would seem that Indonesians will have another close South East Asian neighbour to take aim at considering this story that has made its way into the Calgary Sun Newspaper. Indonesians are pretty familiar with Malaysian attempts to steal all things Indonesian. Most recently Malaysia has been guilty of thieving the odd song or two and a concerted effort to steal the traditional batik textiles of the islands of Indonesia. However, Indonesia has not had any run-ins with Thailand over the theft of Indonesian cultural heritage or products.

Should Indonesia and Indonesians be angry?

The Calgary Sun newspaper in Canada is reporting that the Bean Stop in Eau Claire Market is about to start serving Kopi Luwak. As most connoisseurs of coffee will know, a good cup of Kopi Luwak requires good beans and the best quality beans come from Indonesia and not Thailand. Kopi Luwak requires the palm civet to munch down the coffee beans. These beans then pass through the civet's digestive system and are partially digested. Bean collectors are then employed to pluck the coffee beans out of the civet feces. The beans are then processed.

Kopi Luwak are Indonesian words. However, the beans being sourced for the Kopi Luwak that is to be served at the Eau Claire come from the Doi Chaang area of northern Thailand. Hmmm, can one really even have legitimate kopi luwak if it is not produced in Indonesia?

In any event, the coffee is not going to be cheap, even if it is not the real thing. A cup of the Thai version of Kopi Luwak will set drinkers back a whopping CND 25 a cup and CND 60 for a 50 gram tin. The owner of the Eau Claire apparently has secured about 10kgs of kopi luwak.

Let's face it, Kopi Luwak is popular. After all, it even made it on to the Oprah Winfrey Show!

A Coffee Fix...

I really enjoy my coffee. I most enjoy a good Indonesian coffee. You know, the coarsely ground variety where the sediment sits in the bottom of your cup. And, if you were to leave that sediment there a few days it would harden into something comparable to cement. My particular favourite coffee growing areas just happen to be two places that want to be free from the clutches of Indonesia; one has done so, Timor Leste. The other, Aceh, seems destined not to break free. Those are issues for another post.

So, with coffee in mind, I thought I would share a link that I came across on Yahoo about the six worst cups of coffee you could drink if you were thinking calories.

My favourite is the Cold Stone Creamery Lotta Caramel Latte, Gotta Have It Size. This cup will provide you with 1,790 calories, 99 g fat (62 g saturated, 2.5 g trans), and 175 g sugar. Or in more manageable terms, the equivalent of a day's worth of calories, the equivalent of 62 strips of bacon, more than your daily permissible intake of trans fat, and the equivalent of 44 spoonfuls of sugar.

To be honest, I don't think I have eaten 62 strips of bacon in the last five years, perhaps even longer than that.

I could not imagine sitting down and eating 62 strips of bacon in one sitting. Although, I could imagine sitting down to a single cup of coffee.

Enjoy!

Free Days...

For anyone wondering what to do on your "free" days:

Via twitpic.

After the Non-Fatwa, Kopi Luwak Farming...

Simple economics would suggest that the best way of keeping a price high is to ensure that there is limited supply. So, the decision to move towards mass production of Kopi Luwak by farming the civets that eat the coffee beans and excrete them partially digested appears to be a recipe for market disaster.

I am not an economist. However, in my mind, it is pretty simple. If you increase supply without a commensurate increase in demand then it will not be too long before there is oversupply and downward pressure on the price of the product.

Anyways, the idea is that civets are going to be bred in captivity and then force-fed the coffee beans. This is supposedly a sure-fire money spinner as collectors of the valuable civet dung need go no further than scampering up and down under the civet cages. The image that comes to mind is egg farming; the rows upon rows of caged chickens popping out eggs.

It is interesting that the decision to start small-scale farming comes on the heels of the recent decision by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) not to issue a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from drinking the coffee. According to the MUI, Kopi Luwak is halal (permitted for consumption) if it has been thoroughly and properly washed. I wonder what the quality assurance procedure is on this "thorough" cleaning arrangement? After all, the whole point of Civet Coffee is that the beans are partially digested by the stomach enzymes of the civet.

The non-fatwa has inspired PT Perkebunan Nusantara XII to see an opportunity to ramp up production and presumably ratchet up profits into the bargain.

The current price range for a cup of the Kopi Luwak in Jakarta is somewhere between IDR 90,000 and IDR 110,000, so it is not cheap. Or for those that drink their coffee at the franchise havens of Gloria Jeans or Starbucks, it is the equivalent of a couple of the biggest and most expensive brews on offer at those franchises.

Kopi Luwak is an acquired taste, kind of like Durien (Duren), some people love it and some people hate it. Kopi Luwak is a nice coffee, but I have never been convinced that it was ever worth the price charged.

The Buddha Bar -- More Protests...

Some things come and go, and this is one of those; protests against the Buddha Bar in Jakarta. This really is making a mountain out of a molehill. The idea that it is in some way threatening interfaith relations and national unity do not bear out.

The only relationships that it seems to be threatening are those of the protesters who cannot seem to cope with the concept of a Buddha theme for a resto, cafe, and bar.

The current argument is that the name of the bar is an insult to Buddha and Buddhism. My guess is that Buddha would probably be telling the protesters to chill out and meditate a little, you know search for a little enlightenment, devote their human energies to something that is important and worthwhile.

The protesters have decided that if the governments of Jakarta and Indonesia are not going to revoke the business permits of the franchise holder, then the next best course of action is to congregate outside the French Embassy and demand that the French government do something about it because the trademark name is owned by a French company.

The biggest beef of the protesters is that using the name and image of the Buddha is an insult. This insult is further exacerbated by the fact that prostitutes hang out their. Now, for them to know that the bar is either frequented by prostitutes or overrun by them would require the protesters to have some intimate knowledge of the joint. Perhaps they are disgruntled customers?

One of the protesters even went so far as to suggest, "What's next? Christ Bar, Islam Bar, Hindu Bar?" Now, there is an idea. I would probably go for Jesus Bar myself. Let's face it, Jesus supposedly turned water into wine. Not just a little bit of wine but a lot of wine. So, the "Jesus Wine Bar" would seem to be aptly named. Now, for the Islam Bar. Why not? Not all bars have to serve alcohol. It could be a coffee bar. Maybe it could serve up coffees from places like Turkey and pastries from the Middle East. A Hindu Bar might need a little more thought...

There are so many important issues that need the dedicated attention of Indonesian citizens, this is not one of them.

Ho hum...

Kopi Luwak -- A Postscript...

The MUI has decided that Kopi Luwak (Luwak Coffee) is OK for consumption by Muslims. This means that the MUI sees no need to issue a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from drinking really expensive coffee. I have had a mug or two in my time of the kopi luwak, and it is an excellent drop. Nevertheless, it is a luxury that is currently out of my price range.

I am not Muslim so a fatwa would make no difference to me anyway. But, I am a little confused by the reasoning of the MUI on this one. Perhaps some of my Muslim readers or other informed souls will see fit to enlighten me. The concern here was whether the coffee was the product of something that was najis, or ritually impure. If it was, then Muslims would be required to avoid it or drink it and seemingly be in a perpetual state of najasat (ritual impurity).

Kopi Luwak is coffee that is made from beans that have been eaten by a civet and then excreted whole. My understanding was that the civet was najis in the same ways that dogs and pigs are considered najis. In addition, we are talking about coffee beans that have been eaten by something that is najis and then this najis little civet craps out the beans which are then collected, cleaned, ground, and sold for big dollars.

The MUI decision not to act is based on the belief that if the beans remain in tact and are thoroughly cleaned and there is no fecal contamination then the coffee is fine to drink, at least this is the story according to Ma'ruf Amin.

This must mean that the MUI is going to certify the production process or it will have to have a little bean checker dude checking each and every been as it is processed.

Oh well, happy kopi luwak drinking time to all!

MUI, Fatwas, and Kopi Luwak...

Each passing day further highlights the fact that the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has way too much time on its hands. Unfortunately, rather than doing something useful like marshalling their considerable resources and self-confessed moral authority to rid Indonesia of poverty, they instead focus their considerable energies on really useful world-changing matters such as the prohibition of drinking kopi luwak.

Kopi luwak is the world's most expensive coffee. What makes this coffee so unique, and apparently worth up to USD 600 a kilo is that the coffee beans are eaten by the civet and then passed through their intestinal tract and excreted in their feces. Then the feces are collected, the beans washed, and the coffee ground. All pretty simple really.

It is likely that there are many people who would turn up their nose at the prospect of paying top dollar for a recycled coffee bean, particularly so for a coffee bean recycled in this way. Yet, there are those who believe that kopi luwak is one of the world's great coffees, exquisite, and so worthy of the high price tag. Then there are others, probably not to be classed as connoisseurs of the little black beans, who think it to be just another cup of coffee, no better or no worse than you might get from a McDonalds McCafe.

Funnily enough, the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) decided that it was exquisite enough to give a bag to Kevin Rudd (former Australian Prime Minister) when Rudd visited Indonesia. That led to the inevitable, and somewhat lame jokes, of "crappacino" and "dung diplomacy".

However, when one thinks about it, it was pretty prophetic of the Indonesian president because it was not all that far into the future after that the then Australian PM found himself in a world of crap and was deposed as PM by his deputy.

The interest from the MUI (and according to the MUI, the NU) stems from concerns that kopi luwak is najis. Najis means ritually unclean, and unclean foods are forbidden in Islam. There is no doubting that najis exists in Islam and there are very specific provisions in place relating to things that are najis. It remains to be seen as to whether kopi luwak is one of those things.

However, no matter what the outcome, it remains a truism that there are so many far more important and pressing matters facing Indonesia and Indonesians that the MUI would be better served thinking about those and directing their collective energies to the successful resolution of those problems first before worrying about the najis or lack of najis-ness of kopi luwak.

Ho hum...

Entertainment and Ramadan

As is the case during every Ramadan that I have spent in Indonesia, entertainment venues go into reduced hours mode. Entertainment is not just your bars, clubs, and massage joints, but pool halls as well. Another oddity is that alcohol generally continues to be served with food and in coloured plastic cups or coffee mugs.

I went out last night and shot some pool with a good mate. We normally shoot pool in a place called "After Hours" and saw no need to change the habit, so that is where we went. Everything was pretty much as it always is, except for the drinks. The beer was not served in a beer mug, but rather it was served in a coffee mug. The beer was still ice-cold and apparently, according to the girl serving us those ice-cold beers, the coffee mug actually held slightly more beer than the regular beer mug. So, we were actually getting to drink more beer for the same price during Ramadan.

I did not take the camera [mental note -- take the camera with me everyday] so I do not have a picture. Maybe, I will shoot a few games next week and take the camera this time, get the photo of the beer-filled coffee mug, and add it to this post.

I have often wondered whether there are "entertainment venues" that continue to entertain unaffected by the holy month. I might have lived here and in Jakarta a long time but I am not knowledgeable on these things. Maybe some one will drop by who does know these things and enlighten me.

I find it interesting that the authorities clamp down on entertainment during the month of Ramadan. It is interesting because I have always understood the fasting month to be about resisting temptation, over-coming your urges, and through this struggle purifying yourself of the sins of the previous year, a cleaning of the slate if you will. The authorities seem to think that fasters need a helping hand by legislatively removing the temptation by closing places down.

Another fascinating aspect of the fasting month is that the law and order fellas ramp up the operations against prostitutes and others deemed undesirable, arrest them, and the send them off to some re-education camp to learn a trade like sewing. Surely, if prostitution is bad then it is bad all-year round, right?

For those of you that are fasting -- good luck!

Starbucks

Now is probably not a good time to be a Starbucks employee in the US. Starbucks are reporting that they are to close 600 of their coffee shops in the US and this will eliminate some 12,000 jobs. Strangely enough the market reacted pretty well to the news and put on as much as 7.2% in Nasdaq trade. The shares eventually closed up 4.7% in after hours Nasdaq trading at USD 16.35.

Starbucks had more than doubled in size in the last three years but despite store growth the company had seen declining earnings. Perhaps if there is a case to be made for a company growing too fast then this might be it. Almost 70% of the stores to be closed are less than three years old. However, the company maintains that it is going to stick to its plan of opening another 200 stores through September 2009.

Analysts are suggesting that Starbucks has fallen victim to surging world oil prices where consumers are less likely to spend income on luxuries such as cafe lattes and caramel machiatto.

I was in Starbucks in Plaza Senayan last night and it was doing a roaring trade for a Tuesday evening at 21.00. It was full and more people were lining up to get their gourmet coffee fix. I would be surprised if the franchise holder in Indonesia was looking at consolidating or closing stores, in fact I would be more surprised if an expansion in the number of stores was not being contemplated. However, I am not privy to the financial books and my observations are completely anecdotal based on drinking coffee in various Starbucks stores and them always being full.

Come to think of it, it is time for a coffee!

But it ain't gonna be no Starbucks but rather it is going to be a Kapal Api!

Coffee and Stress

I have found the perfect reason to drink more coffee although I am not sure whether I have to be a rat to benefit. A South Korean trial has uncovered that just the smell of coffee triggers action in a number of genes that produce proteins with anti-oxidants that are good for you. It must be pointed out that these responses were measured in rats and not humans (picture was found here).

Nevertheless, anyone who knows even a little bit about scientific testing knows that the rats get it first! The results of the trial have been published in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry". The report indicates that generally just smelling coffee alleviates the stress levels of the sleep-deprived rats.

So, I am going to drink more coffee today or at least go to Starbucks, Gloria Jeans, or the Coffee Bean and buy some fresh roasted beans to sniff because I am sleep-deprived after having watched the US Open Golf. As it turns out I could have stayed asleep as Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate have to go at it again today in a playoff!

It seems like catch-22 to me as the drinking of the coffee keeps you awake and causes stress increases but the aroma of the beans reduces that stress, weird! Apparently, previously studies have shown that coffee consumption reduces depression and the risk of suicide. All this time I just thought these big coffee drinkers were just wired on the excess caffeine but in fact they were not wired but enjoying levels of reduced stress.

In any event if you want to learn more about current coffee research you should go here, The Coffee Science Information Center or CoSIC.

Factoid

I am always learning something!

The only US state to grow coffee is Hawaii.