Table talk

Something special for you to ferret out
A rare treat for coffee connoisseurs is for sale over the internet: weasel coffee. No, not coffee made out of the furry mammals, but made from beans that have been eaten and regurgitated by rare Vietnamese weasels.

As you can imagine, the weasels' gastric goings-on radically alter the taste of the coffee, and the result is supposedly a stronger, smoother, heady-flavoured coffee that will appeal to serious connoisseurs of the mighty bean. Once evacuated by the bean-loving furballs, the beans are collected by eagle-eyed villagers, who then market the stuff directly to the manufacturer. If you fancy a taste, visit www.firebox.com.

It's all a question of shamantics
Tree-huggers are flocking to the four-star Armathwaite Hall country house hotel, at Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria, to enjoy free shamanistic sessions. Shamanism, an ancient Native American tradition, focuses on nature and storytelling as a way of reducing anxiety, achieving greater creativity, and strengthening relationships. Meetings take place in a 21ft-high tepee in the grounds of the 42-bedroom hotel. Nature immersion, including hugging trees, forms part of the two-hour sessions.

Organiser Fran Foster said that shamanism might sound daft, but it's actually very effective as a motivational tool for tired executives. So can we put it on expenses, then?

... And four lagers for the cherubs in the corner
A sculptor once commissioned to create a statue for the Vatican has turned his local pub into a replica of the Sistine Chapel. Steven Haynes has painted a historic scene around the walls and ceiling of the Saville Arms in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Regulars have found their faces painted into the scenes, which took eight months to complete.

A whimsical portmanteau of poltroonery
The writers of the Good Hotel Guide 2005, published last week, were left groaning over some of the menus that crossed their desks. The menu of one highly pretentious pub was littered with verbs to describe what the food was doing, some of which sounded vaguely obscene: resting, draped, perched, caressing, mounted, sided, enhanced with, married with (as in "mullet married with prawns"), dressed on, complemented with, drizzled with and, finally, carved on to.

If the food would stay still long enough, we might be able to find out what it tastes like.