Monkey spit in coffee? 6 unusual ways to have your cuppa

Starbucks this week launched a line of

olive oil-infused drinks in Italy.

The new beverages, branded Oleato, combine two ingredients on the country’s food pyramid: olive oil and coffee.

Here are six other unusual coffees that you may or may not have heard of.

1. Flaming Spanish coffee

Originating from Huber’s Cafe in Portland, Oregon in the 1970s, the flaming Spanish coffee is served as an American adaptation of the Spanish drink carajillo. This coffee cocktail comprises coffee and hard liquor, usually rum or brandy.

It is popular in Spain and Latin American countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Cuba.

The drink is often known as flaming Spanish coffee due to its use of rum in large portions, which allows it to be lit by fire.

To make this beverage, rim a glass with a lemon wedge and sugar. Brew the coffee and pour the rum into the bottom of the glass. Light the rum on fire and gently swirl the flaming rum in a circular motion. Then add a sprinkle of nutmeg, cinnamon, liquor and the coffee.

2. Cheese coffee

Cheese coffee, also known as kaffeost, is a Swedish delicacy that combines coffee with Leipajuusto, a kind of bread cheese.

Leipajuusto, which originates from Finland and can be found in northern Sweden, is made from cow milk, reindeer milk or goat milk. The beverage can be enjoyed by adding cheese cubes into the cup or pouring coffee over sliced cheeses. It tastes like tiramisu or espresso cheesecake.

3. Egg coffee

If you feel like having something sweet after a meal, but do not want a dessert, a cup of egg coffee may work for you. This Hanoi speciality is a creamy soft, meringue-like egg white foam perched on Vietnamese coffee.

It is served in hot and cold versions. The former comes resting in a small dish of hot water to maintain the coffee’s temperature. The drink becomes sweet and thick when the strong coffee at the bottom of the cup seeps through the egg – the yellow layer on top. Meanwhile, the cold version, which is served in a small glass as a yellow concoction, is enjoyed with a spoon and tastes almost like a coffee flavoured ice-cream.

4. Kopi Gu You or butter coffee (bulletproof coffee)

Singapore has its own version of bulletproof coffee, which is popular in Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

The beverage in the United States comprises black coffee, a slab of butter and medium-chain triglyceride, or MCT, oil – made in a lab from coconut and palm kernel oils.

Over here, it is known as Kopi Gu You, which means “coffee butter” in Hokkien.

Unlike the US version, the local version does not include MCT oil. The addition of the butter gives a blend of savoury and sweet notes to the coffee. It is also said that the beverage has been sold at coffee shops here since the 1930s. 

5. Monkey spit coffee

Monkey spit coffee is popular in Taiwan and India.

The drink is made from coffee beans that have been chewed and regurgitated by monkeys, leaving tooth marks and saliva.

The enzymes in the monkeys’ saliva break down the coffee beans, giving them a different flavour.

In Taiwan, farmers produce the beverage from the spit of Formosan rock macaques, which are small grey monkeys native to the island. In India, the coffee is made from rhesus monkeys’ spit.

It costs at least US$300 (S$420) a kilogram.

6. Kopi luwak or civet coffee

As the name suggests, civet coffee is made with some help from civets, which are cat-like creatures.

The coffee, which is primarily produced in Indonesia, is listed as a luxury delicacy thanks to the way its beans are obtained.

The civets are fed ripe coffee cherries, which are fermented by the animal’s digestive enzymes.

The half-digested beans from the civets’ faeces are then roasted lightly to remove the strong bitter taste, giving the beverage a fruity and sweet flavour with hints of plum, dark chocolate, apricot and sandalwood.

Although the origins of this coffee may sound questionable, it is one of the most expensive gourmet coffees in the world, and can cost between US$150 and US$600 for half a kilogram.