I normally shun the practice of reproducing internal Microsoft emails. However in this case it's acceptable (or at the very least it's amusing).

I'll find some volunteers in January and we'll taste test it.

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From: Philip Richardson
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 6:20 PM
To: [Our Whole Team]
Subject: Strange Package
Importance: Low

I wandered into the office last Wednesday and found a fedex package on my desk. Inside was some coffee. Bizarre I thought. Some coffee company has sent me coffee. No note or anything attached. This stuff does happen to bloggers occasionally (and I have blogged a little about coffee this year). The packaging seemed kind of ordinary so I just threw it in my drawer are left. Today I went back to the office to drop something off and decided to grab the coffee. I thought I’d throw it in the blade grinder at home and just use it for french press. I then noticed a strange cat/weasel creature on the box. I then read the packaging a little closer.

It turns out that it is freaking civet cat coffee. So I have a ¼ pound of ‘bold’ and a ¼ pound of ‘medium’ from http://www.luwakcoffee.com. Price: $65 each. Yes – that’s right it’s $260 per pound. In Sydney you pay $40 USD for one cappuccino made with this stuff.

For those unfamiliar with this ‘delicacy’: It’s coffee beans salvaged from the ‘dung’ of civet cats (also deer in Vietnam) who live in the coffee plantation. Supposedly the partial digestion of the bean ‘enhances’ the flavor.

I was tempted to throw it into the fully auto machine in the kitchen and not tell anyone but it seems like a waste (and possibly an insane HR violation). If any other coffee connoisseurs out there in the team are interested we can figure out what to do with it in January.