Pop Culture Frenzy, Round 30

Welcome once again to Pop Culture Frenzy.  Today we'll explore some of the wild innovations ultra premium coffee makers have perking to satisfy the refined palates of coffee connoisserus.

One category of fancy coffee beanage involves animal material.

What is in these new fangled coffees?
Molly?





Squirrel spit?

 

 

Hostmaster:  Close.  If we were serious about keeping score around here, you'd get a half point.  Here's why.  There is a coffee flavor on offer that features the spit of  monkeys.  Formosan Macaques' spit, to be precise.  Those that sip the spittle say it has a subtle vanilla quality.  

The answer I seek is of a different animal matter.
Fluffy?

 

 

 

Dog hair?

 

 

 

Hostmaster:  incorrect.
Bryan?

Crushed Dung Beetles?

 

 

 

Hostmaster:  you're getting warm.

Cyndi?

 

 

 

 

 





It is wrong to take stuff

 from animals

and drink it.

 

 

 

 

 

Hostmaster:  yeah.  Thanks for sharing your cup of enlightenment, Toots.

Wanna try again, Bryan?

 

 

 

 

Sure!  hmmm 

Since dung beetles

was close and they prefer

herbivore dung,

I'll go with a herbivore.  hmm

Since we're dealing with efficionados,
you know, snobs, they

wouldn't drink something so common

as horse dung.  hmm

Snail dung, goose dung-

too ordinary. 

Panda, Rhino are too

importantly endangered or something.

I know!

Fossilized Mastodon

dung?

 

I like the way your mind works, Pal.

 

 

Some Baristas seek to take fecal

coffee to the apex in order to sate the most ardent

infused beverage enthusiasts.

 

Here's a big cuppa.

Thai elephants eat coffee beans.

  Somebody goes out and collects elephant droppings and

 sifts through it for the big chunks. 

 These are whizzed in a coffee grinder.  

Sound good?  Expect to pay 13 for 50 bucks a cup. 

 

Want more cup a dung?

There is a cat-like animal from Asia called a Palm Civet.

They are kept in cages and fed fancy coffee beans called Kopi Luwak.

Their poop is collected,

handled in ways we'd rather not know about,

 then brewed.

 $25 to $120 per cup.

 

Want more bottoms up?

Brazilian Jacu  birds live around coffee plants.

Naturally enough, these birds poop,

 some of which lands on the coffee beans

People pick the beans,

 careful not to dislodge the Jacu poop.

 Drinkers of this potion proclaim it as intoxicating as anise.

  Others compare it to leather and truffles.

Maybe they can call this brew, Liquorice Biker Pig

 

 

So ends this round of Pop Culture Fenzy.  Anyone up for a cup of Biker Pig?  Me neither.  I'm a bird, I already know what water tastes like after I've gone in it. There is no need for decoction. 

 

 

 

 

 

Round 30

Fluffy/Molly   14

Bryan/Cyndi    11

 

 

 

Don't believe the Hostmaster?   Here's a link

Winter Repast

We've talked about dogs eating snow before.  We talked specifically about Mabel's habit.  Let's revisit this chilling topic with an update of sorts.

Mabel continues to indulge her taste for snow.  She also continues to throw up afterward.  A new wrinkle has been added to this annoying business.

That's right.  Henry.  You see, Henry has a taste for what most of us would consider non food items.  He is also fond of ice cubes.  Sadly, these two taste preferences combine unpleasantly.  In short. 
Pukesicles.  Barf sorbet.

 

Beyond the beauty lies cool hot dining.

Fluffy and Introduction Etiquette

 

We've only just met.


KEEP CALM
AND
DO NOT
TOUCH

Champions have Big Hearts

Size matters in matters of the heart of an elite horse athlete.   

Taking a sample of 34 Arabian horses, 23 of them highly successful in endurance competitions, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania used an echocardiograph to measure the horses' hearts.

The star jock horses had larger left ventricles.  A bigger heart offers an advantage to the horse -more blood is being pumped into the muscles during exertion.

Other studies have shown similar findings in Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses. 

What researchers are wondering now involves the old nature vs. nurture question.  Were the big hearted horses that became great athletes born that way, or did their hearts get bigger thanks to lots of cardio exercise? 

More testing is necessary.  It will be difficult to conduct these tests.  Many many horse hearts will have to be measured before and after they become (or don't become) successful competitors.  Not only that, many horses begin extensive training before they are fully grown.  A not fully grown horse probably does not have a fully grown heart.



Still, it is a question to run with.