Give me my caffine or/and give me death!

[Taro Toporific]

Coffee Gains in Tokyo on Supply Threat: World's Biggest Mover
March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Robusta coffee futures prices in Tokyo rose as much as 7.7 percent, the biggest fluctuation of any commodity market today, as drought threatened to cut the crop in Vietnam, the biggest supplier of Robusta beans.
Prices for Robusta, the variety used by processors such as Nestle SA and Procter & Gamble Co. to make instant coffee, have surged 27 percent this year to the highest in more than four years on the Tokyo Grain Exchange. Japan was the world's biggest coffee importer after the U.S. and Germany in 2003, according to the United Nations.
``Prices are being pushed up on expectation supplies will be tight following the drought in Vietnam,'' said Akio Shibata, a deputy director at Marubeni Research Institute in Tokyo. A decline in production in Brazil ``will aggravate the situation.''....more...

[Charles]

...drought threatened to cut the crop in Vietnam, the biggest supplier of Robusta beans.

Vietnamese coffee beans?!? No wonder all that instant coffee tastes like crap. I found a decent instant brand made from Colombian beans, but it's still inferior to properly brewed coffee.

I once visited a coffee plantation in Colombia. The beans are spread out to dry on large concrete slabs, pushed around by barefoot laborers. That's one reason I gave up drinking coffee, I don't like drinking something that's been between somebody else's toes.

[Steve Bildermann]

That's one reason I gave up drinking coffee, I don't like drinking something that's been between somebody else's toes.

..and wine ain't so hot either

[Charles]

That's one reason I gave up drinking coffee, I don't like drinking something that's been between somebody else's toes.

..and wine ain't so hot either :D

I don't really like wine, even though it is mostly produced in wine presses, not with bare feet.

Actually, I'm in a bit of a jam caffeine-wise. I'm out of green tea, and I asked a friend of mine in Tokyo to send me some good tea. But it's been over 3 weeks and the package hasn't arrived. I suspect it got stolen when it went through the notoriously corrupt Chicago post office, and right now some rogue postman is trying to smoke my tea. I could ask my friend to send me more tea, but I despair at the thought of trying to get leafy green substances with cryptic foreign labels through Customs.

Anyway, to return vaguely to the topic.. What is it about instant coffee in Japan? No home I've ever been in has had anything but instant. Nobody brews coffee from grounds.

[kamome]

Nobody brews coffee from grounds.

Maybe they're too hopped up on the crap that Doutor brews.

[American Oyaji]

I suspect it got stolen when it went through the notoriously corrupt Chicago post office, and right now some rogue postman is trying to smoke my tea. ..... I despair at the thought of trying to get leafy green substances with cryptic foreign labels through Customs.

This gave me quite a chuckle!

[Ptyx]

That's one reason I gave up drinking coffee, I don't like drinking something that's been between somebody else's toes.

Oh come on, that's nothing. Supposedly the rarest coffee in the world is this. Now we're talking.

This coffee has been selected for us by paradoxurus hermaphroditis. Better known as the Common Palm Civet Cat. It prowls the Sumatran coffee plantations at night, choosing to eat only the finest, ripest cherries. The stones (which eventually form coffee beans) are then collected by cleaning through the droppings.

Now that is something only a coffee freak can drink. Count me in.
On this one too by the way.

Wild Weasels roam the coffee plantations and eat the ripe coffee beans, but rather than digest them the weasel regurgitates them and vomits them up! Due to the fact the cherries have been in the weasels gastric juices, it seems to dramatically alter the taste of the coffee once brewed.

It's a shame that the stuff at edible.com are so expensive because there's a lot of things i'd like to try.
The Giant Japanese Hornet is a priority of course.