Weasel Coffee

Hanoi has amazing coffee culture.  There are lots of cafes all around the city that prepare very potent brews.  On one of the days of the trip, we went to Cafe Lam, one of the oldest coffee shops in Hanoi.  On another day we strolled sweated our way to Cafe Mai to check out their "Paris Mai" brew, or weasel coffee.  

Weasel coffee is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a weasel picks off the tastiest and juiciest coffee fruits, passes it through its digestive tract, then defecates the coffee beans undisturbed.  When the coffee beans are washed, dried, ground and roasted, you get... a delicious cup of coffee!

It's hard to tell if any of this is authentic (subsequent reports on the interweb indicate that we likely didn't get coffee made from coffee beans that had actually passed through a weasel's intestines (doh!)) as only a few hundred kilograms of weasel coffee are produced every year and the cost runs in the thousands of US dollars per kilogram.  

It's more likely that Cafe Mai developed a roasting process to mimic the taste of weasel coffee and calls it thus.  To me it tastes like rich mocha with a delightfully nutty after-taste.  

I guess it doesn't really matter whether it is authentic weasel coffee or not - it was so incredibly smooth and tasty.

If you ever need souvenir ideas from Vietnam...I highly recommend their coffee beans!