The traces of the years of Coffee Coffee: memories of masked palm civet Coffee

Many Malaysians like coffee, and so do I.

Some people's love of coffee is natural, while some people's love of coffee is acquired. And I, the reason why I like coffee, I have both.

I especially like drinking coffee black. Coffee without milk can really drink the original taste of coffee.

impressed

I have drunk a lot of good coffee; I have not forgotten the good taste I drank a few decades ago, but now I can never find that kind of worried taste. You say, isn't it the best for a cup of coffee from a western high-end coffee chain to sell you more than ten ringgit? Or is white coffee, which has been very popular in recent years, not the best?

Not to me, really. Let's put it this way: I have a good sense of taste for coffee. I was nurtured from an early age.

I grew up in a coffee garden.

Since the 1950s, my father has been growing coffee nine miles from the half-port road in Anshun, about five kilometers down the stone road of the rubber plantation, through a large forest. Vaguely remember that the coffee garden in my hometown covers an area of 13 acres and is full of coffee trees and coconuts.

Since I was sensible, I have formed an inextricable bond with coffee. The coffee garden is my paradise. When the coffee was ripe, when I was young, I would help pick coffee seeds in the garden and occasionally steal coffee seeds. In fact, it is not "eating", because coffee can not swallow, can only suck the sweet mucous membrane under its skin. The coffee seeds must be dried, peeled and shelled, leaving the glossy coffee seed meat, then roasted, ground, stir-fried with cheese and sugar, and finally ground into coffee powder.

How to choose the best variety of coffee seeds?

Fine variety

It takes a master to do it. Strictly speaking, this "master" is not human. But: masked palm civet.

Masked palm civet, the Malays call it Musang. The Taiwanese named it the civet.

Masked palm civet is very picky about the choice of coffee seeds, and only the best varieties of coffee trees can attract his appetite. Just look at which coffee tree is covered with gnawed coffee skins and "masked palm civet coffee dung" to determine whether it is an excellent variety or not.

When I was a child, my mother used to carry a small iron can, light mosquito incense (there are many mosquitoes in the garden), put on a headscarf, and wear me to pick up "masked palm civet coffee seeds" in the depths of the garden. Because the coffee seed has a very hard shell, masked palm civet cannot digest it. After swallowing it, it will be excreted intact, and there are strips of "coffee dung" like feces all over the place. We all pick it up, wash it, dry it, then grind the coffee shell with a machine, take out the fat and glossy coffee seed meat, and finally bake and stir-fry it to become the highest quality "masked palm civet coffee".

My family depended on this coffee garden for a living, harvesting two or three times a year, until about 30 years ago, when the price of coffee fell and it was not easy to manage the harvest. As far as I can remember, although we collected a lot of "masked palm civet coffee seeds" every year, we all kept our own processing and drinking, and never sold it. Relatives and friends were full of praise when they drank it, and we still remember to talk about it so far.

Over the years, I have heard that Taiwanese people are very intelligent. They buy a lot of "masked palm civet coffee seeds" from Indonesia, pack and market them in a modern way, and claim to be "Lanshan coffee" and "civet coffee." it is said that the asking price for a kilogram is as high as NT $8,000! Packed in a box, there are only six small packets, each weighing only 20, and it also costs more than NT $500, which is a great exaggeration.

When I think of the days when such expensive top coffee can be found everywhere in our coffee garden, I feel a little smile.

Hey! It's a pity that we can't go back in time.