Have you seen today’s Groupon deal for New York City? Jezalin’s Gifts in the Limelight Marketplace is offering a cup of “rare Kopi Luwak Arabica Coffee” for $10. That’s right. Ten bucks for one cup of coffee that they list as a $29.99 value. Which means, by my powers of extrapolation, that this gift shop I’ve never heard of in one of New York’s most storied drug dens of yore normally offers a $30 cup of coffee on their menu, certainly an enticing proposition for the tourist set. I would go on about the craziness of that price point, but our web host is charging us by the bold tag here at NYC Mugged and I have a few more points to cover.
Now, as any good coffee nerd knows, Kopi Luwak is made from the beans of coffee berries that pass through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet, a small Malaysian animal that is arguably the world’s foremost coffee connoisseur. I’m not sure who first thought it would be a good idea to make coffee out of rodent poop, but, hey, oysters happened, too, and that’s not a bet I would have staked. My question is: where do you draw the line on what you’ll pay for “rare” coffee? I’m seriously considering forking over my lazily-earned scratch to sample what may as well be a cup of unicorn tears for all its verifiability. And why should I buy it from a shop that also sells sports gift baskets? Isn’t this a job for Cafe Grumpy or Stumptown, two esteemed local coffee joints whose beans I will happily pay $15 for 3/4 of a pound? That’s 20-something cups for half the price of one half cup of normally priced Kopi Luwak at Jezalin’s Gifts. So, then — is this a journey worth taking, or do you ignore it on general principle?
Would you pay $30 for one cup of coffee? $10? Will you buy today’s Groupon deal?
4 Comments
I had a cup of poop at Jezalin’s and I must say it was pretty awesome! I didn’t see any sports baskets but what they did have was an awesome machine similar to Starbucks clover. The employee said they were the first to have this machine in retail. It was really awesome, it ground the beans and made a french press coffee all in one step. What really impressed me is that they roast the beans on premise. The place is really top-notch. The kopi luwak itself was great. Yes, 10 bucks is a lot but compare it to a good bottle of wine. What is crazy is that I pay around 10 bucks for a regular glass of chardonnay in just about every NYC restaurant. Kopi Luwak is expensive because of its limited production.
While I’m tempted to scream SHILL from the rooftops where I sweep chimneys daily to finance my high-priced coffee habit, I am inclined to agree with you. I did get a cup of the Kopi Luwak at Jezalin’s (with my $10 Groupon) and found it to be quite an extraordinary cup of coffee, certainly on par with my Jamaican Blue Mountain experience in Negril. The only reason I didn’t write a follow-up is because I consumed it in the company of family and didn’t feel like putting on my reporter hat right at that moment (despite all the fantastic hat deals available at the Limelight Marketplace!) And while I’m not likely to return to sample a cup for the normal price of $29.99, I would certainly consider another ten-dollar holler in the future, at which point I will duly report every tantalizing tickle of the tastebuds that the exceptional excreta doth impart.
i will try kopi luwak just for have the experience
but taste in a real place like JEZALIN S
I share Eddy’s point, the 80′s are gone so most things aren’t expensive for the sake of being expensive anymore. Usually, and especially with food, the price is directly related to the production methods and levels. Luckily, this is indeed a rare instance where the taste is worth every penny.