Soylent Green: It's good for people, because it's people.
A new bistro was opening in Hale's Moon. One that touched on one of my few passions, coffee. A bid went out to supply the coffee. It was a small amount, and I figured I could just find a decent cup somewhere along my usual route and help out a friend.
Nooooooo. Uh-uh, no such luck. The rim and the border are woefully lack in decent Coffea. The blank stares I got when I asked where I could score a few pounds of Café Rico or Panama Geisha told me what I needed to know.
I confabbed (or some other cool jargony type word) with the Consolidated Association Traders of Zenobia and got a fuel and docking alotment to try and find and supplier of decent coffee for the rim and border. And maybe some raw resources for the Core.
Gabe agreed to crew with me for the trip. She put in some fancy purple color chopstick in her hair, this counts as dressing up.
Personally, I found the Core to be a little stuffy, controlling, bureaucratic, punitive, overly structured, etc. Granted, I went to boarding school and was beaten by nuns, but, .... Ummmmm....oh, and my point was.....hm....oh yes....the food was fab. It's the only thing I really miss.
Mostly, I miss Sushi and decent coffee. I have managed to provide a good and fresh supply of sushi for the Fook Me Hookah Lounge in the Hale Wasteland Village.
Now is my opportunity for a regular supply of decent coffee. Our main obstacles is that there was not a lot of good info on suppliers of good coffee and the known suppliers of good coffee in the core is not priced right for cost sensitive folks in the core.
We would have to do some serious leg work.
They make you go thru a sterilizer before you enter the city limits. Pfft.
Lot of cool gadgets to try and sell us mediocre coffee. Mostly people wanted to sell us Tea or Sake.
No no no, COFFEE, C-O-F-F-E-E, COFFEE. Not a gong. You want one so much, buy one for your Hookah Lounge.
No no no, COFFEE, C-O-F-F-E-E, COFFEE. Not some tea serving 'bot.
We searched high and low. Not a decent coffee place to be found.
Even chased down a local named Vinny, he ran away. Concealed weapons next time, Gabe.
We got desperate, we were willing to check anywhere. Well, almost anywhere. This was in Old New Delphi.
I was weak, we were desperate, Gabe orders grapefruit juice from an anthro. Hippy. Finally, this guy hooks us up with another guy who knew a guy with civets. Yeah, Civets. Asian Palm Civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago of Old Earth That Was.
This was the break we were waiting for. We head to the Wastelands and meet Hercule and his civet farm.
The endangered Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxorus Philippinensis) dines on a endangered coffee species, Coffea Liberica.
Kopi Luwak is the best coffee ever produced by any civilization, EVER. And pricey as hell. Kopi Luwak is coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet.
Civets are often casually referred to as "cats" or "weasels", but they are not in the cat or weasel family. Palm civets are primarily frugivorous, feeding on berries and pulpy fruits, including those of Ficus trees and plams. They also eat small vertebrates, insects, ripe fruits and seeds.
Civets consume the red coffee cherries, and they tend to pick the ripest and sweetest fruit. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but a unique combination of enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are thoroughly washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. Light roasting is considered particularly desirable in coffees that do not exhibit bitterness, and the most pronounced characteristic of Kopi Luwak is a marked reduction in bitterness.
Anyway, we cut a deal. 50 breeding pairs of endangered Asian Palm Civets.
Hercule also hooks us up with the grey market for premium coffee. Kopi Luwak is made from Liberica coffee beans, neither Arabica nor Robusta.
Trading away some of the civets and distribution rights to Zenobia, we negotiate good coffee.
Santos - from Brazil's famous coffee pass through, is a low acidic light bodied brew.
Colombian Maragogype, Caturra, Typica and Bourbon cultivars. Has a bright acidity, is heavy in body and is intensely aromatic.
Sulawesi Toraja Kalossi — Grown at high altitudes on the island of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the middle of the Malay archipelago in Indonesia. Rich, full body, well-balanced acidity (slightly more than Sumatra) and is multi-dimensional in character. It has dark chocolate and ripe fruit undertones.
Tanzania Peaberry — from Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. "Peaberry" means that the beans come one to a cherry (coffee fruit) instead of the usual two. Peaberries naturally occur for only approximately 10% of any crop.
Indonesian Coffea Liberica is a species of coffee that originated in Liberia, West Africa. The coffee tree grows up to 9 metres in height, producing cherries that are larger than the cherries found on Arabica trees. It is commonly cultivated in Javanese colonies today.
Kape Barako, also spelled Baraco is a rare Coffea Liberica varietal grown in the Philippine colonies. Barako is the Filipino term for a the male stud of an animal, and has become associated with the image of a tough man. Kape Barako is prepared using a drip brewing device, French press, or by simply pouring hot water unto the grounds and filtering the mixture using a piece of cloth. Barako is often sweetened with honey or brown sugar. Barako can be used to make espresso and other espresso-based drinks. It has the largest beans of all the coffee varieties. Its taste is said to be superior to Robusta. Barako is considered to be the best among Liberica species. Aside from being a beverage, Kape Barako is also used as a body scrub in spa treatment.
Kenyan Blue Mountain — the arabica varieties are reknowned among coffee enthusiasts to have a bright, "acidic" flavor. The Blue Mountain variety/cultivar is also raised here. Coffee from Kenya is well known for its intense flavor, full body, and pleasant aroma. Kenya AA is a classification of coffee grown in Kenya. All Kenyan coffee is graded after it is milled, grades are assigned based on the screen size of the bean. Beans with a screen size of 17 or 18 (17/64 or 18/64 of an inch) are assigned the grade AA, generally the largest bean. While the large bean size is considered by many to be a sign of quality, but it is only one of many factors in determining high quality coffee.
Puerto Rico - Café Rico, also known as Alto Grande. Same cultivar/variety as Jamaican Blue Mountain, originally cultivated on the mountain slopes of the Island of Peurto Rico. The official coffee of the Papal offices of the Vatican.
Panama Geisha variety - From the Panamanian highlands of Boquete in Chiriqui Province, highly sought after by bidders in auctions, achieving high prices.
Hawaiian Kona — From the Hualalai slopes of the Kona District on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Jamaican Blue Mountain — From the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica. Due to its popularity, it fetches a high price in the market. This variety/cultivar is also grown in Kenya and Puerto Rico.
PHEW! So here we are loaded for bear with 45 tons of the 'Verse's best coffee and 25 breeding pairs left of Asian Palm Civets. I kept on pair and a baby civet (which I named Paradoxurus)
How much coffee does LilyBell want? 50 pounds a month. I give her a good deal on some Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiin Kona along with some Colombian.
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