Alamid Coffee

a most expensive coffee, AKA civet poop

One of the stuff I asked the husband to bring from his recent visit to the Philippines is coffee beans that have been eaten and excreted whole by civets called alamid. I have read about these coffee beans in many blogs and have wanted to try them.

The jar describes the brewed coffee:

• Macchiato: smooth, sweet, and lingering dark chocolate flavor with a fruity aroma
• Espresso: bold, rich, fully developed flavors swirling around your upper and lower tongue, no negative aftertaste.

I ground the coffee beans in a clean unused grinder and brewed it in my stovetop espresso maker, drank it black with no sugar. I agree to the sweet rich flavor and non-acidic clean aftertaste but can't really say it has chocolate flavor. I didn't add milk macchiato-style which might explain the non-chocolate taste. The whole bean itself has a very fragrant chocolate aroma. What I like is the lingering cool mouth feel around and under my tongue similar to the essence of mint but without the minty flavor, I'm sorry if I can't explain it very well, you'll just have to try it. It will cost you though as the coffee is expensive at $110 per pound (P1100 for a 100-gram jar) and if I were a billionaire and have lots of cash to burn I will drink this coffee everyday for the rest of my days.

I never thought that someday I'll be drinking coffee that a wild pesky animal has eaten and pooped out but now I have and I can assure you, this coffee doesn't taste like sh*t.:-)

Here is the Coffee Alamid website.

Coffee

top left to right: sagada, Figaro blend (barako and arabica), benguet

bottom left to right: LAVAZZA pure arabica, pure barako

Italian stovetop moka pot

My husband and I did a sort-of taste test of the Philippine coffee beans we recently acquired: sagada, benguet, and barako from Baguio and Figaro barako/arabica blend he brought home from his trip to the Philippines. All of them were brewed using the Italian stovetop moka pot. I wanted to use other coffee makers but I thought it was too much trouble. I don't know if the result would have been different if I had used all 4 coffee makers: moka pot, drip, espresso machine, and Melitta manual coffee basket.

We compared the taste of the sagada, benguet, and the Figaro blend with Italian LAVAZZA espresso beans which is what we have been drinking for the last 18 years or so, with a 2-year break when we couldn't find them in the grocery stores and bought Starbucks espresso/French roast blend whole beans. When LAVAZZA became available again in some grocery stores and online I have not bought nor taken any other beans but lavAzza. Barako has a very unique Filipino taste and should not be compared with anything else. Filipinos who are familiar with barako will know with one sip if it is genuine barako beans which the H says is somewhat "grassy".

If you have relatives coming to visit or if you are visiting the Philippines, I recommend buying whole coffee beans, vacuum seal them immediately, and do not refrigerate but store them in an opaque container and keep them in your luggage to prolong its freshness. Two years ago my father-in-law sent us ground barako beans that he stored in his freezer which is the last place you want to store your coffee, and when they got here the coffee grounds were stale and undrinkable.

pure barako: medium roast which is the norm for barako, medium aroma, very good strong barako taste

ME: I love it!
H: likes it, authentic barako taste

sagada: dark roast arabica, very little aroma, okay taste, slightly acidic

ME: not my favorite, won't recommend them
H: just okay, nothing special

benguet: dark roast arabica, very sweet aroma and flavor

ME: sweet aroma, slightly over-roasted and more bitter than LAVAZZA but I love it, comparable in taste to LAVAZZA arabica/robusta espresso blend, highly recommended
H: detects a cigar-like aroma, likes the flavor

Figaro blend: blend of medium roast barako and dark roast arabica, sweet aroma, strong barako taste and hint of arabica

ME: I do not like barako mixed with other beans
H: likes it because he prefers bitter French roast type beans and doesn't mind barako mixed with other beans

LAVAZZA 100% arabica: espresso roast, strong aroma and sweet strong but smooth taste

I will not replace LAVAZZA with other coffee beans anytime soon but will have benguet and barako beans if they are available.

We are not coffee experts and this is just our honest opinion on the different Philippine coffee beans and taste is always subjective. My only advice is do not purchase coffee from McD[s and any other fast food joints, they sell the most awful coffee. The first time I had them I thought I had the flu or getting sick. What I mean is when your tongue is coated and can't taste anything, something like that and realized I was not getting sick, it's the tasteless coffee from McD's and the hotel we were staying in at the time!:D