Wild Bat, Costa Rica

Artibeus Jamaicensis is the bat species found in the forests surrounding the Coffea Diversa coffee garden in Costa Rica. The bats feed on the coffee cherries but, unlike the famous Kopi Luwak civet cats, the bats are too small to swallow the coffee cherries. The bat breaks the skin of the ripe cherry with its teeth, feeds on the cherry pulp and licks the sugar-rich mucilage thereby initiating a uniquely natural coffee processing method. The coffee beans are left on the tree and exposed to the sun as nature's own way of drying the coffee in its parchment. Combined with the discriminating selection of the very ripest cherries by the bats makes for an unusual cup -- remarkably fruity and floral with a very delicate acidity.