Weasel coffee.... Hue, and Hanoi..

Getting back to the Weasel coffee story... Now Stephanie (an absolutely lovely woman... who has been volunteering for the past 3 years or so) had read about weasel coffee as being a must drink and or buy thing to do in Vietnam... Not being too familiar with the Vietnamese language she was in a supermarket looking for this type of coffee... In the absence of being able to read the type, she found a shop assistant in the supermarket to help.. however they didn't speak english, so Stephanie decided she would mime it... But she didn't know what a weasel looked like, so got down on all fours and was crawling around the supermarket floor pointing at the coffee... She was quickly surrounded by security guards so she jumped up and quickly left... Now her first mistake was telling us... When she asked us what a weasel looked like, Dudu and I looked at each other and told her:

1. It's smaller than an elephant.
2. It's larger than a rat,
3. It's smaller than an american bear,
4. Larger than an a cat (unless it's of the edible kind then it could get confusing!!)

Sonny our tour leader at that point took pity on Stephanie, and said that it's got a long tail and sharp teeth which didn't really help.. So he told us why weasel coffee was so highly prized... When coffee beans are harvested by man, all of the beans are taken... Weasels however only take the ripest of beans. The beans are not able to be fully digested and there is an enzyme in the weasels digestive system that interacts with the coffee bean which is then excreted out by the weasel. The vietnamese then get the excreted coffee beans, roast them and sell them at horrendously high prices... (Now how the clever Viet worked out that roasting weasel coffee poo was a good thing is beyond me, but they are ingenious!) Now that had us in fits with poor Stephanie looking completely perplexed... I did suggest to her that the next time she was in the supermarket and trying to describe weasel coffee, instead of trying to mimic the animal (that she doesn't know how it looks despite our best efforts to explain) that she mimics the specific characteristics of weasel coffee and how it's made.. She's not talking to us at the moment, but we'll win her over... ..

An update... I managed to get lost in Hanoi, and found myself in coffee street because all it sells is coffee, much like sunglass street sells only sunglasses and watch street... well again you get the picture... Guess what I managed to find and buy for Stephanie!! Yep Weasel coffee, have also got some for me and have sent it home... Hopefully it's there when I return...... Anyone interested in trying it with me???

Tutu and Dudu xoxoxo