Civet Coffee : Specialty Coffee for Everyone
While other coffee shops charge over a hundred pesos for a cup of specialty coffee, Bote Central Inc. offers a better, if not more affordable, alternative.
Acclaimed director Rob Reiner’s Movie “The Bucket List”, shown last month, tells a story between two old men who found unusual bond and joy in the time of old-age sickness. Morgan Freeman, freckle-faced and well-mannered, played an auto mechanic who, in his own universe, is a Jeopardy champion; while Jack Nicholson played the prickly billionaire owner of the hospital forced to share the twin-bedroom.
During the first scene of the movie, While in a courtroom-case that decided the fare of one his hospitals, Jack whips out a cup of Kopi Luwak before answering one of the judge’s questions. It is, he boastfully said, the most expensive coffee in coffee world. But he doesn’t know why.
Noble discovery
Kopi Luwak, known as Indonesian Civet Coffee, is the present leader in civet coffee. Civets are animals that look like tarsiers, which are usually left wild in their own natural habitat the forests, and are the forces behind luxuries like Kopi Luwak. The Paradoxorus philippinensis is a Civet which belongs to the mongoose family, an animal known for its very sensitive nose.
Every night, during coffee seasons, being nocturnal animals, they use their sense of smell to determine which of the coffee berries are the ripest and the sweetest. After the berries are eaten, the beans-since they are indigestible-are left inside the animals’ stomachs, and are excreted before the animals go back to their homes. The endangered palm civets ferment the beans within their digestive system, further concocting a taste so unique and strong after each bean is cracked open. Forest dwellers and farmers from Indang, Cavite collect their droppings very early in the morning, with the seeds still intact and the civet digestive juices wrapping it.
Civets (or Alamids) are earnest seed dispersers in the forests, and they play an important role in the ecosystem. They thrive better in forested areas and clean water systems, making them very suited for the job of making Jack’s (character in the movie) favorite coffee. Jack learns this at the end of the movie, with the help of his newfound friend, after which they both burst into laughter.
No laughing matter
But this is no laughing matter for Vie Reyes, owner of Bote Central, a family corporation decided to overtake Indonesia’s Kopi Luwak with the first Philippine Civet Coffee, Arengga Coffee Alamid.
“We have always been doing business with social development,” Vie said, “Coffee Alamid is a product of the environment. It supports sustainable environmental collection and livelihood to keep the forests and river systems alive. It is our endeavor to make specialty coffee a staple in everybody’s homes.” Especially with the existence of coffee shops that charge hundreds of pesos for a cup of coffee.
Bote Central is a small family-owned corporation which started its coffee business by chance; mind you, nobody in the family was a coffee addict to start with. Vie added, “We were doing research and conservation work for the sugar palm trees (kaong trees) that were abundant in Indang, Cavite since we tap the sap of the sugar palm and make organic vinegar from it.”
They were then producing Arengga Vinegar, the first Filipino product that was cited and won at Anuga Food Fair. Then, they learned that these sugar palm trees were also the habitat of the common palm civets scientifically known as Paradoxorus hermaphroditus, which were sold in Indonesia and at the international market at USS600 per kilo. At first, they were just able to gather five kilos and sell it at P2,500 per kilo.
Newfound respect
“We were further encouraged to go on with the civet dropping collection after that. We conducted research on civets- their habitat, eating preferences, and the likes, and learned that the Philippines has an evolved civet species. We also realized that Indonesia and the Philippines shared the same topography; so it was really viable,” Vie said.
On their second year, they were able to collect 20 kilos. This led them to believe that caging the civets might ensure them supply, if not the demand for it. On the foresight, they thought that it was best, not only for the civets that play a very important role in the forest system as seed dispersers, but also for the environment and the forest dwellers that depend on the agroforests for livelihood. There was really no need to cage them, according to Vie, since they would be able to give litters on a yearly basis if they were left alone foraging for food in our forests, but it was rather better to provide the civets protection.
At present, Bote Central has accredited civet dropping collectors in the forest area, who all now have a newfound respect for the civets and look at the animals more than just “pulutan.” Also, there is now high awareness for maintaining the rivers clean as part of the civets’ habitat, and most importantly, the agro-forest communities seeing huge potential in the coffee market.
Forging partnerships
Bote Central has forged partnerships with the High Value Commercial Crops of the Department of Agriculture, the Philippine Convention of the Department of Tourism, CITEM of the Department of Trade & Industry, and other local government units like Catholic Relief Service, Don Bosco Technical School, Mahintana Foundation, Inc., Happy Earth, Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development Foundation, Family Farm Association, Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst, Japan Int’l Cooperation Agency and other large companies like Ayala Land Inc., Asian Development Bank, Seagull Glassworks, Union Bank of Switzerland, Shell Shared Services, the World Bank and Travel Cafe Philippines.
“Since we believe that civet coffee will always remain a specialty niche coffee market, we are now moving on to the revival of our Philippine coffee industry, since we believe that there are more agro-forests. More and more farmers and consumers will benefit from drinking our locally-produced re ar coffee. It is a surprise to us that aside from the international market, Filipinos have been supporting Coffee Alamid,” said Vie.
