COFFEE with a difference was sold at a Blackburn firm in a bid to grind out vital finds for Macmillian Cancer Support.

Bean counters at Pierce Chartered Accountants flew in the rare Kopi Luwak especially for the day, where staff were hoping to market last year’s total of £500.

The coffee is unique in that its beans are excreted by the Indonesian Palm Vicet, as small cat-like creature which eats fruit and whole ripe coffee beans without digesting the bean.

The beans are then foraged from the forest floor and ground and roasted to make the coffee.

More than 40 people passed through the doors of the Ainsworth Street offices to sample the coffee, which retails at up to £60 per cup.

Organiser John Toon said: “We had a very good turn out and lots of people came to the office over the morning.

“We decided that we wanted to do something a bit different this year.

“It has taken about three weeks to organise the event but it was worth it.

“I tried the coffee myself and it’s fair to say that it’s an acquired taste.

“Accountants have a reputation for being a bit careful with money but when it comes to fund raising for a charity such as Macmillan Cancer Support we’re happy to push the boat out if it helps generate more donations.

“We enlisted the help of coffee experts, Coffee Concepts, to source and help serve the Kopi Luwak, which has to be served at the right temperature.”

Coffee mornings were held across East Lancashire yesterday, joining thousands of other events throughout the UK.

They included East Lancashire Cricket Club in Blackburn which hosted an event, as well as the Sunnyhurst Hotel in Tockles Road, Darwen.

A coffee morning was also held by the Marks and Spencer store in Burnley, Clitheroe Community Hospital, Haslingden Primary School and Roe Lee Park’s pavilion in Blackburn.

Panel Kopi Luwak is unique in that its coffee beans are excreted by the Indonesian Palm Civet, a small cat-like creature, which eats fruit and whole, ripe coffee beans, without digesting the bean.The beans are then foraged from the forest floor and ground and roasted to make a uniquely, delicately flavoured coffee.

It has surged in popularity, featuring on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in the 2007 film The Bucket List.

In restaurants its price can reach £60 per cup, with claims of wild origin attracting the premium.

Despite being in contact with faeces and pathogenic organisms, the beans contain negligible amounts of the organisms associated with faeces.

Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia, is the world's largest regional producer of Kopi Luwak. Sumatran coffee beans are mostly an early arabica variety, cultivated in the area since the 17th Century.