Worth its weight in inlaid gold: Coffee prep goes high-end

By Dara Moskowitz, Special for USA TODAY

Remember when cappuccino was considered exotic? Fast-forward to today's Starbucks-saturated world, where high-end restaurants are working double-time to impress their java-jaded guests.

Silks, the restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco, for example, is one of many eateries to offer guests a single-estate coffee menu as long as a wine list. And like a wine list, the menu has its equivalent of a big-ticket cult Cabernet: Kopi Luwak, the world's most notorious coffee made with beans mellowed in the digestive systems of Indonesian civets and retrieved from their droppings. If the origins of Kopi Luwak don't make an impression, the price will: It's $40 a cup.

That's what it takes to get the attention of a generation raised when half-caff lattes flowed like water.

More...