Tod Mountain Coffee House Doi Chaang Tasting

The team at SPIN Newsmagazine were fortunate enough to be invited to sample one of the world’s most expensive coffees. Tod Mountain Coffee House and Crêperie located at Sun Peaks Resort, hosted an afternoon tasting session to sample Doi Chaang Coffee’s “Wild Thai Civet Coffee.”

So just how expensive is this coffee?

While not currently available for sale at Tod Mountain Coffee a small 50 gram tin of coffee beans can retail from $60 to $70. Twenty ounces of water is added to the freshly ground beans, to produce two cups of coffee.

This is not a strong tasting coffee and has no bitterness. I’m no coffee connoisseur but I did enjoy my freshly brewed taster cup, so much so that I went back for a second sample.

Why so expensive?

The Wild Thai Civet Coffee is produced high above the hiltops in the Doi Chaang area of Northern Thailand. The Wild Civet Coffee is made from the spat or passed coffee beans eaten by wild civets who roam freely through the natural habitat of Doi Chaang Village.

The enzymes in the civet’s stomach enhances the coffee’s flavour by breaking down the proteins that typically give coffee its bitter taste. When swallowed, the beans inside the cherries pass through the civet’s system undigested.

Farmers then gather the passed beans from the forest floor, carefully wash off the waste and prepare the beans for roasting.

Although Mountain High Coffee House and Crêperie are not carrying the Wild Civet Coffee product their regular coffee is also a product of Doi Chaang. This coffee goes “Beyond Fair Trade”, meaning the farmers are paid in excess of the price recommended by the The Fair Trade Organization for their green beans and they retain 100 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of their beans.