Autumn · Batch 01

Monkey Punch: the coffee a monkey spat out

Monkey Punch is an autumn coffee perfume by Posh Stink: durian, rotten papaya, monkey-spit coffee, spilled rum and tobacco, in 300 numbered bottles.

The coffee a monkey spat out

On coffee farms in Taiwan and India, macaques raid the trees at night. They eat the sweet red fruit of the coffee cherry and spit out the bean, still wrapped in its parchment. Farmers once chased them away as pests; in the early 2000s they started collecting the spat-out beans instead.

The monkeys never swallow the bean, so monkey parchment coffee is not a cousin of digestion but of saliva: the chewing starts a light fermentation, and the roasted coffee is described as sweeter, with notes of vanilla and chocolate. It is one of the rarest coffees in the world, made in quantities of a few dozen kilos per farm.

Top notes: durian, papaya and banana skin

Monkey Punch opens loud. Durian, the fruit so pungent it is banned on public transport in Singapore, gives a ripe, almost onion-like sweetness; rotten papaya and banana skin push it further into fruit that has stayed too long in the sun.

The opening of Monkey Punch is meant to make you laugh. It settles within 20 minutes, and what stays is a warm, sweet fruit, much softer than the first breath.

Heart notes: coffee, rum and cinnamon

The heart of Monkey Punch is the coffee. Monkey-spit coffee gives a roasted, slightly sweet note, spilled rum adds a sticky, boozy warmth, and cinnamon bark gives the dry spice of an autumn afternoon.

This is the stage that makes Monkey Punch a coffee perfume rather than a fruit perfume: hours of roasted coffee and rum on the skin, sweet without being sugary.

Base notes: fermented bean, tobacco and tonka

The base of Monkey Punch nods to kopi luwak, the coffee whose beans are fermented inside the gut of the Asian palm civet. The gut-fermented bean accord gives an earthy, slightly animal depth under the coffee.

Tobacco leaf and tonka bean finish it with a smooth, hay-like sweetness that stays on clothes for days. Monkey Punch ends as the most expensive mess in the forest: coffee, fruit and smoke.

Who it is for

Monkey Punch is for people who love coffee perfume but want something louder than a latte. It is an autumn scent, best on cold mornings and long evenings.

It is an eau de parfum of 100 ml at £316, made once, in a batch of 300 numbered bottles, and it ships in Autumn 2027 to the people on its waiting list.

Mischief in a glass. Fruit gone too far, sweet and loud.