From John Morris
I am amused by the apparent revulsion over monkey tea (Feedback, 10 July). My wife is of Chinese extraction and confirms that monkeys are used to collect herbs from places inaccessible to humans. Monkeys are also used to harvest coconuts in many countries, and cormorants to catch fish in China. No doubt there are other examples of animals being used similarly elsewhere. People in the UK use collie dogs to herd sheep, ferrets to catch rabbits and so on.
Also, your note on weasel coffee should not be limited to Vietnam. Kopi musang used to be highly valued in Indonesia. A musang is a variety of civet cat. The coffee “bean” is protected by a skin so tough that it used to be referred to as a parchment, and the bean would pass through the civet cat’s intestines unaffected, to be washed out of the dung later, and the skin then removed. The musang only chose to eat perfect fruit, neither under nor overripe, and was thus deemed more expert at harvesting beans of the very highest quality than we humans are. I know it sounds revolting, and I have not knowingly drunk any as it is appropriately highly priced, reserved for the high and mighty and not available to yokels like me.
Rudgwick, Sussex, UK
