A professor and students at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology have unveiled a civet coffee they developed using bacteria collected from civet feces.

The coffee, which took six years to develop, is touted as being rich in texture with 47 different layers of flavor, including caramel, almond, milk and chocolate — 16 more than traditional civet coffee.

According to Hsieh Paochuan – the professor of food science who led the research – the new civet coffee contains less than half the amount of caffeine of most other coffee products on the market.

Hsieh and his students analyzed feces collected from civets in Indonesia and selected 16 of the 136 strains of bacteria in the feces to create an environment fit for fermentation to create the coffee.

The coffee sells for 8,888 NT per kilogram — less than half the price of traditional civet coffee.

 

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