Coffee is indisputably one of the most popular drinks in the world. That may seem obvious, but you don�t know the half of it. Outside of oil, coffee is the second�most valuable commodity exported by the countries�that produce it. Naturally, there are some variations on the drink. And no, that doesn�t include Starbucks� ever-evolving menu. Rather, there are strange and delicious coffee variations available around the world that�ll make your morning cup of joe a little more interesting without breaking the bank. Scandinavian Egg Coffee Want to speed up your daily breakfast routine? Easy. Do as the Scandinavians do and crack an egg into your coffee grounds. Now, this isn�t done to combine scrambled eggs with your cup of coffee. Rather, this brewing method came to popularity as a way for people to improve weak coffee. Mixing a raw egg with dry coffee grounds, then adding boiling water is said to create an amber-colored drink that has all of the kick of coffee but none of the bitterness. It�s been recommended that the curious try including the ground-up egg shell in their grounds as well as the egg itself, but that design remains up to you. You�ll also note that all you have to do in order to introduce this worldly drink to your morning routine is use a single supermarket egg. Talk about�keeping worldly eating and drinking cheap. Kopai Luwak Indonesia has a different system for�securing rich and delicious coffee�that just so happens to involve a cat. Well, not precisely a cat � rather, an Asian palm civet. Now, hold on to your stomach. In order to ensure that the coffee beans that go into the Indonesian Kopai Luwak are rich enough, coffee makers feed coffee beans of varying types to the palm civet and wait for the animal to...well, finish digesting them. Nothing impacts�the grind size of your coffee beans�like a civet�s digestive system, right? Once released, the droppings are brought inside, cleaned, and the beans collected from them. These beans are then washed again and turned into what is, in fact, the most expensive strain of coffee in the world. This may be a good time to mention that the alternative name�for Kopai Luwak is �poop coffee.��While it�s not going to appear in the frugal kitchen any time soon, it remains an intriguing variation on coffee and evidence of humanity�s ingenuity when it comes to its favorite drink. Black Pepper Coffee For a coffee variation that doesn�t require the help of a wild animal, you can look to Senegal, Africa, and the country�s famous black pepper coffee, or Touba coffee. Considered medicinal by many, black pepper coffee is infused with cloves and a Guinean pepper. This gives the coffee its strong flavor and a particular bite that is said to reinvigorate its drinker. The Guinean pepper, after all, adds to the antioxidants that coffee already has in it. Once paired, these separate foods create a concoction that is good for your digestion and that can boost your production of endorphins. This coffee�also comes extremely cheaply�if you�re in Senegal � it�s apparently available for a few cents at the carts that sell food on the side of the road. Knowing the Difference For hundreds of years, farmers have grown coffee through natural methods, without the use of synthetic pesticides. However, due to the rise in demand, some family farmers are forced to try �modern methods� to get a better cash crop. Thus, the arrival of methods is designed to boost production at the expense of the organic farming community. Today, the world market has become flooded with low-quality coffee at a competitive rate from over-producers such as Vietnam, resulting in very little return for farmers. With Fair Trade purchasing, coffee is purchased directly from cooperative farms, eliminating the middlemen, and making it possible for farmers to earn a fair living. We encourage you to support workers� lives and coffee quality by choosing organic and Fair Trade. Trying to stick to a budget doesn�t mean you have to resign yourself to a cup of black coffee in the mornings, though. All around the world, people are coming up with creative ways to vary the taste of their coffee without breaking the bank. While you may not be able to convince your cat to eat coffee beans for you to strain later, you can at the least explore your coffee-drinking options and see what the rest of the world has to offer your kitchen. |
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