Here we are chillin’ with the Weasel. Which weasel? That would be the Weasel that enjoyed my coffee before me, making my coffee experience all the more enjoyable. This is a Luxury made Simple by the Weasel.
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“The Hata Vietnamese Traditional Coffee shows off a warm, coppery, caramel color. The roasted aroma really comes through, and the taste is light with a smooth finish. I really like it!”
I don’t remember which came first: me starting to drink coffee and actually enjoy it or me reading about how in Vietnam the locals discovered that roasting coffee beans digested from Con Chon (Vietnamese Civet Cats or Weasels) produced a gourmet coffee beyond the experience of coffee connoisseurs worldwide. Several years later that story stuck with me. As I came to be a coffee connoisseur (“I’m a common sewer!”) in my own right, I started to see the wisdom in locals running into deep forests to collect and roast such glorious treasures. The rundown is this:
- Coffee cherries
- Con Chon leaving behind digested coffee beans
- Coffee workers collecting and roasting these digested coffee beans
- Coffee drinkers enjoying the fruits of the fermentation and roasting
You could say that ordering and drinking a Cafe Boring Latte renders me unconscious when in fact I am trying to do the very opposite when I enjoy my coffee. I like coffee. I like new things. Hello, Con Chon!
Whenever my mom visits our family in Japan and I can’t make the trip, I always ask her if she can buy some coffee there and bring back something new and exciting. My mom knew that I had mentioned a coffee produced from leave behind coffee beans in the trails of civets or weasels. I didn’t know all the details but I knew enough that I wanted to experience for myself this gourmet coffee sensation. When I saw that my mom brought back some Hata Vietnamese Traditional Coffee, I canceled my future expedition to the deep forests in search of digested coffee beans. All I needed to pick through were some sealed packets of fresh coffee in drip bags. The water is on and coming in hot!
“Under the effect of fermentation of enzymes in the digestive system of (the) Weasel, (the) coffee taste is changed vastly, deliver(ing) (a) special flavor. It is the fragrant combination of fresh soil, subtle sweet(ness) of syrup and light hint of chocolate, (a) precious gift from nature.”–Huong Mai Cafe
Lisa poured over boiling hot water over the first drip bag. There was a little bit of splashing. She was very careful to let the hot water seep through the bag slowly. We watched the coffee pool and rise beneath the drip bag. The rich caramel hue was unexpected. Perhaps we were anticipating a muddy dark brown color. Our minds were opening and expanding as the drip bag swelled with piping hot water and released it as unique coffee. Lisa poured the second glass of coffee. The color was a little deeper than the first. I would expect that since Con Chon are involved in the process, a formative stage to be sure, some slight variations might occur, elevating the entire coffee experience even higher.
Lisa and I tinked our full glasses, sniffed the fresh, hot coffee and took a sip. Our reactions were the same: instant amazement and surprise! We just looked at each other and articulated our impressions with considerable overlap. Lisa said, “The Hata Vietnamese Traditional Coffee shows off a warm, coppery, caramel color. The roasted aroma really comes through, and the taste is light with a smooth finish. I really like it!”
I was thinking the same thing except that I wanted to add, “This coffee really impresses me. I taste hints of tea like a roasted barley tea. Tasting this coffee straight is definitely best because you can appreciate the subtle notes. This is very interesting. It’s like a hybrid of coffee and roasted barley tea!”
“This coffee really impresses me. I taste hints of tea like a roasted barley tea. Tasting this coffee straight is definitely best because you can appreciate the subtle notes. This is very interesting. It’s like a hybrid of coffee and roasted barley tea!”
When we consider cheese, beer, whiskey, sake, yogurt, kefir, kombucha and so many other fermented foods and drinks, this coffee really isn’t so foreign. In fact, I say for anyone who would try it, they would be delighted with the refreshing and deep hybrid combination of coffee and tea that this specialty coffee offers, an experience like no other. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If digested coffee beans are left behind by Con Chon, who is more perplexed by the collection, roasting and drinking of the beans as coffee—Con Chon or you? Certainly not the connoisseur!
Every ending brings a new beginning. The Con Chon deliver to us the gift of Hata Vietnamese Traditional Coffee. What seemed like a peculiar and sensational news story turns out to be a gourmet coffee sensation. Somewhere in the deep forests of Vietnam, a digested coffee bean falls and no one is around to hear it, but later it is found—a sound of thunderous, excited footsteps approaches.
To learn more about Hata Vietnamese Traditional Coffee, and to order coffee and tea from Huong Mai Cafe, visit Huong Mai Cafe – Coffee and Tea
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The Simple Luxuries 