Drinking World’s Most Expensive Coffee

January 10, 2008 



Koronadal City—I have unwittingly drunk the world’s most expensive coffee. And I’m not kidding or being sarcastic.

At about 9:30 last night, two dormmates and I agreed to go to U3, a newly opened coffee shop at Alunan Avenue.

Whenever I try a place for the first time, I always order the specialty of the house. Incidentally, U3’s best is Coffee Alamid 2x Espresso, at P286 per serving.

I’m cheap, but I couldn’t break my self-imposed rule. I mustered all the courage I needed and asked for Coffee Alamid. Marlon and Jomar must have also been extra brave at that moment for they also asked for the same coffee.

When our order was served and we saw the tiny mugs containing no more than 120 ml of black liquid, we were half-convinced we had made a mistake. When we started sipping the drink and the bitterest coffee we ever tasted made love with our taste buds, we were fully convinced we had made a mistake.

But since we had reached the point of no return, we mustered again all the courage we needed to finish the excruciating mission that was emptying our mugs. While we were in it, I told my two hapless fellows that the most expensive coffee in the world, as I read in Time magazine, is made from beans handpicked from the poop of civet cats.

After a while, my eyes fell on a tiny tarpaulin facing me a few feet away. I saw a picture of a small furry animal and coffee leaves and the words “Philippine civet cats” and “U3.”

In one swoop, the pieces of information got glued together inside my head. I blurted out something like, “Guys, what we are having right here, right now, just happened to be the coffee I’m talking about . . .”

At P2.38 per milliliter, U3’s Coffee Alamid is still too affordable to be considered the world’s most expensive coffee. But civet cats, which are so picky they eat only the sweetest and reddest of berries, are native to the Philippines (local name: alamid) and Indonesia (the beans from which are called kopi luwak). U.S. and other countries have to import the beans, so the price there is way higher, up to $50 per cup in some cafes.

Upon leaving the place, we realized we did not make a mistake. Where else could you have the world’s most expensive coffee at such a low price? And I was just being a git. The coffee tasted great that I drank it without sugar.

P.S. It’s weird how a change of place changes one’s view of the value of things. Now that I’m here in Cebu, I wouldn’t call a P286 cup of coffee expensive.