It is not uncommon to hear stories of farmers having to control wild animals that are raiding their crops, usually by shooting them. In rarer cases you hear of farmers encouraging wild animals into their crops for pest control, or in an even more unusual case - value adding.
In India, farmers are harvesting coffee picked for them by a local variety of monkey that is a lover of premium coffee.
The
Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) is one of the best known monkeys which has a unique tie to humans. Anyone who has been blood-typed will have noted that after the A, B, AB or O of the primary blood type the letter Rh appear with either a + or - sign. That Rh is your Rhesus factor - named after the monkey from which blood was taken for the experiments to determine the cause of haemolytic disease in infants. Most people are Rh positive but a few are Rh negative meaning that they do not have the Rh antigen in their blood. There can be risk to the foetus when a pregnant woman is Rh-negative and the father is Rh-positive.
The monkeys, along with the unfortunate bunnies into which their blood was introduced allowed researchers to identify the factor in blood and saves thousands of lives each year. I am sure that this was not pleasant for the monkeys, and they are owed our gratitude for saving so many lives.
The Rhesus Macaque has one of the greatest geographic ranges of any primate other than
humans and is found across Asia from India to China and deep into South East Asia. It is also found not only at a variety of latitudes but also at a variety of altitudes and they are endemic in the Chikkamagalur District which is the home to the Merthi Mountain coffee estate, owned by the giant Indian
Tata corporation. Tata was one of the firs companies to establish a strategic approach to philanthropy in India and their trusts have established institutes for higher learning in science, social sciences, cancer hospitals and research centers, and an institute for basic research in mathematics and physics. More recently they have expanded their efforts to natural resource management, rural livelihoods and communities, education, health, civil society and governance and arts and culture.
All very laudable, but in my experience large multi-focused corporations don't do coffee well. In the case of coffee from their Indian estates I have to make an exception - Tata don't have a production line mentality when it comes to coffee and each estate has its own character reflective of the terroir and climate. They are also firmly focused on quality at the estate level and one of the earliest coffees that I roasted and enjoyed was from one of their estates. At the time I was very surprised as I had never even considered India as a coffee origin.
The estates are not the only lovers of quality coffee - the macaques that are common across India (and who are renowned for their thieving habits) have also developed a taste for the ripest, juiciest coffee cherries. As a troop they move through the plantations stuffing their specialised cheek pouches with coffee beans. They then retreat to a few favoured trees at the edge of the forest and consume their purloined treasure from a safe height.
Only interested in the flesh of the cherry they spit the seeds onto the ground below and by the end of each coffee season a mat of dried and weathered coffee beans can be found.
These are harvested, washed, cleaned and graded and due to their unique origin, bagged separately for sale. Because of its origin as a top grade arabica and the special 'monkification' (or should that be Rhesusification?) the coffee is sold at a premium price - the monkeys don't really steal the coffee, they 'value-add' to the coffee which seems like a pretty fair exchange to me.
The coffee has been through several unique processes - first the monkeys have become expert at selecting the sweetest ripe fruit, second their saliva help start the process of breaking down the tough outer parchment and finally the beans are left exposed to the air, wind rain and sun - a rough 'monsooning' approach.
It should come as no surprise then that in the cup this coffee has the body of a monsooned malabar, although without the distinctive 'wet sock' bouquet that often accompanies that other famed Indian bean.
It is sweet, full of rich fruit driven flavours and is very smooth. I rate it much higher than the much more expensive Kopi Luwak - it may not be as rare but rarity does not make a good coffee and this coffee manages to be unique in that respect.
Kamran and Louise at
Fiori Coffee have managed to acquire a very small number of sacks of the monkey coffee - my job is to attempt to convince Kamran to part with some of those in their green state so that I can roast them for myself and report back on how they roast. This would also be a coup for me as I also have had the interesting (read nerve-wracking) experience of roasting Kopi Luwak and I want to compare my notes on these two beans.
For those who just want to try it, the Fiori web site has a whole article on the Monkey Coffee up just today - they are running a series of tastings in cafes around Perth and I know I'll be heading to one or two of these to see how other people rate this bean.
Louise has planned six sessions so far but indicated that others may also occur:
12th September 4pm: Venue – Cranked – 106 Oxford St Leederville
20th September 2pm : Venue – Pantry Door – 38 Angove St North Perth
3rd October 2pm: Venue – Dancing Goat – 142 Railway Rd Swanbourne
10th October 10am: Venue – Barista 235 – 235 St Georges Tce Perth
18th October 3pm: Venue- West End Deli – 95 Carr St West Perth
24th October 4pm : Coode St Cafe – 24 Coode St Mt Lawley
These sessions will be $15 a head for an hour of tasting and learning (bargain!).
Generously Fiori are donating the proceeds in an even split between the
Shenton Park Dog Refuge - and my personal favourite the
WA Autism Association's Early Intervention Centre.
Full details on the events can be found on the
Fiori Coffee websiteHaving been along to similar events before I highly recommend attending - and also having tasted this coffee I feel sure it will tantalize your palate.
PS - sorry Fiori, I couldn't find a good enough monkey picture of my own so I stole yours! I did see a really cool one over at
Christina Mittermeier's site but I am loathe to poach her superb work.
It felt almost sinful adding a full measure of golden, smoky Lagavulin into the perfect ristretto, but I had vowed and declared that I was going to attempt an Irish coffee the likes of which I would rarely see again.
Most people are aware of a project about which I am passionate - the One Laptop Per Child project.
In India, farmers are harvesting coffee picked for them by a local variety of monkey that is a lover of premium coffee.
