Meerkat Prompts: Coffee
Once upon a time, this ‘kat didn’t really do coffee. I was more of a tea person. This may have something to do with biscuits, since I have often found tea is great for dunking. Somewhere along the line, and I don’t really know when, I switched to coffee during the day, with the occasional cup of tea, though tea has become reserved more for evenings.
It can be argued that coffee- especially really good coffee – eclipses tea, though I know people who can’t stand coffee at all (which is fair enough). There is also a lot of variety when it comes to coffee. There are milky lattes, frothy cappuccinos, the elegant simplicity of flat whites, and for those who want a bit of a buzz, the bitter intensity of espressos. Once, at the suggestion of an acquaintance of mine, I tried salted coffee, which wasn’t that bad!
I tend to drift towards cappuccinos when grabbing a coffee at a local bakery or coffee house. Then again, sometimes (depending on what’s available), I’ll go for something else. At Christmas Starbucks do a gingerbread latte, which I must admit is gorgeous. The trouble with Starbucks is that I feel like I need to take out a mortgage to afford one. Then again, even they pale in comparison to the cost of some coffees…
The world’s most expensive coffee is known as Black Ivory. It comes in at $2,500 per kilogram. It’s produced in the Maldives and Thailand, and via a process that makes this meerkat blanch. 30 elephants (yes, elephants) consume Thai Arabica coffee beans, and they are then fermented within their digestive tract, and… well, I’ll let you figure out the rest!
This isn’t the only coffee to be produced via… um…. produce. It seems there are a few that are filtered through an animal, and I wish to try absolutely none of them. Mind you, if I were served it, and no one told me what it was, I probably wouldn’t question it. Still, I don’t think I wish to spend that sort of money on a drink.
What perhaps makes coffee truly one of the best gifts humanity has ever given itself is the caffeine factor. I obviously cannot speak for everyone, but a hot mug of coffee, first thing in the morning, provides a jolt to the senses, and it touches my soul. I feel refreshed, so to speak, by the this little cauldron of brown liquid, with its wonderful magical properties. I’m not sure I’d function without it!
