The World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is a Cruel Cynical Scam | TIME.com World The World’s Most Expensive Coffee Is a Cruel Cynical Scam For the most part, civet coffee is not harvested in the wild in limited quantities but mass produced by animals kept in appalling conditions — it's high time we stopped drinking it Send to Kindle Nicky Loh / Getty Images for WSPA A civet cat kept in a cage that belongs to a kopi luwak or civet-coffee farm and café in the Indonesian town of Tampaksiring, on Bali Island, on May 27, 2013 Follow @TIMEWorld The costliest coffee on earth has a humble proletarian beginning. As folklore has it, civet coffee, or kopi luwak in Indonesian, was discovered by plantation workers in colonized Indonesia . Forbidden from consuming coffee beans picked from the plants, they picked up, cleaned and then roasted the beans excreted by wild Asian palm civets that entered the plantations to eat the ripest coffee cherries.

The civets’ digestive systems gave kopi luwak a uniquely rich aroma and smooth, rounded flavor — so much so that the Dutch plantation owners soon became die-hard fans. In the past 10 years, kopi luwak has won the hearts — and wallets — of global consumers . A cup sells for $30 to $100 in New York City and London, while 1 kg of roasted beans can fetch as much as $130 in Indonesia and five times more overseas. The ultimate in caffeine bling is civet coffee packed in a Britannia-silver and 24-carat gold-plated bag, sold at the British department store Harrods for over $10,000. The justification for these exorbitant prices? A claim that kopi luwak is sourced from wild animals and that only 500 kg of it is collected annually. The claim is largely nonsense. While there are some ethical suppliers of hand-gathered civet coffee, recent investigations, both by journalists and animal-rights activists, have revealed a cruel and avaricious industry. To satisfy global demand, many suppliers keep captured civets in cages and feed them almost exclusively on coffee cherries.

Enduring appalling living conditions and an unhealthy diet, these nocturnal omnivores suffer mental distress — incessantly pacing and gnawing on their limbs — and succumb to illness and death. These grim farms are not confined to Indonesia. Farmers elsewhere in Asia have jumped on the bandwagon. By one estimate, 50 tons of mass-produced civet coffee from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China flood the market every year. (MORE: In Laos, a Campaign to Resurrect Great Coffee ) One of the most outspoken critics is former coffee trader Tony Wild , who imported a single kilogram of kopi luwak to the U.K. in 1991 and took pride in introducing it to the Western world.

(The coffee gained wider notoriety after being featured in The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2003 and the myth of its all-natural origins was propagated in a Jack Nicholson–Morgan Freeman scene in the 2007 film The Bucket List.) Wild, who witnessed horrific animal abuse while helping a BBC team investigate civet-coffee farms in Sumatra, has launched a petition and social-media campaign, “ Kopi Luwak: Cut the Crap ,” urging customers and companies to shun the product. “The coffee trade has conspired to turn a blind eye to the wildlife suffering in order to get this business going,” says Wild, who is also the author of Coffee: A Dark History. “It is a bit of a racket.” Teguh Pribadi, founder of the Indonesian Civet Coffee Association, admits animal cruelty is rampant in the industry. “The luwaks aren’t treated well,” he tells TIME. “Many farmers don’t understand how to keep the animals properly.” The association recommends the civets be kept in cages that are at least 2 m by 1½ m wide and 2½ m high, and for no longer than six months.

“We tell farmers to focus on the quality, not the quantity of the product,” Teguh says. “It’s better if they produce little but superior coffee, and don’t have dying civets.” Yet animal experts say Asian palm civets — solitary and territorial by nature — shouldn’t be kept in cages, nor in enclosures, because a single civet needs an average of 17 sq km of territory. “I have seen 100 luwaks kept in a half-hectare coffee farm,” Wild says. “It’s kind of a prison camp where they fight each other.” Besides, the harvesting of genuine kopi luwak, gathered in the wild, seems either more trouble than its worth — or hazardous to health. “We don’t know how long a dropping has been out in the wild,” Teguh says, “and civet-coffee beans that have been on the ground for more than 24 hours can be infected with fungi.” Wild has been told by a local expert that “following a luwak around all night yourself” is the only way to guarantee real kopi luwak — and, now it seems, a fungi-free drink too. Maybe we’re better off sticking to a cup of regular arabica.

Subscribe Popular Among Subscribers Kopi Luwak, an Expensive Coffee Made from Coffee Beans Excrete of Civet Cats | Health Kopi Luwak, an Expensive Coffee Made from Coffee Beans Excrete of Civet Cats Hot Tweet Story: Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world and is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the common palm Civet, a weasel-like animal. Hoax or Fact: Fact. Analysis: The message talks about Kopi Luwak, which has been called the most expensive Coffee in the world, that it is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the common palm Civet cat. Yes, it is a fact. Kopi Luwak is a famous, costly and supposedly tasty coffee predominantly sold in Indonesia. It is also called Civet Coffee, as it is made of fermented beans, which are harvested - from the feces of the Asian palm Civet. Asian palm Civets are small gray and black cat-like mammals inhabiting Asian forests. “Kopi” is the Indonesian word for coffee and “Luwak” is the local name of the Civet cat.

The coffee firms say that the Civet cats eat the ripest red coffee cherry and digest the soft outer part of it, but do not digest the inner coffee beans which are and excreted. It is said that the internal stomach enzymes of the Civet cats ends up adding a unique flavor to the coffee beans, removing its bitter flavor, which is why the beans are then picked up by locals and sold for making coffee. The Kopi Luwak, i.e. the Civet Coffee is said to have a distinct and desirable flavor. Kopi luwak became popular after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was even mentioned in the 2007 film 'The Bucket List.' Because of this popularity and an apparently desirable flavor, some restaurants price a cup of civet coffee up to USD 100. Another Concern Most retailers of Kopi Luwak say that the coffee is wild-sourced from the middle of the jungle from the droppings of free-roaming Civet cats without harming the animals, and they call their business ethical. However, undercover reporters from the BBC visited some civet coffee farms in Indonesia and witnessed civets being held in captivity and enclosed cages in bad conditions.

It is also a fact that producing large amounts of this civet coffee from exclusively wild sources is simply not possible. As shown in the video, the PETA Asia Pacific, an affiliate of PETA US, also addressed this unethical and cruel treatment of the animals. To avoid consuming this coffee made from coffee beans partly eaten and excreted by the Civet cats and to stop the unethical treatment of those animals, PETA calls people to stop drinking Civet Coffee. Test to prove the world’s most expensive coffee really has come from civet poo - Telegraph How about that? Test to prove the world’s most expensive coffee really has come from civet poo Scientists can now tell whether the world’s most expensive coffee, which is picked from the poo of a weasel-like creature called the Asian palm civet, is the genuine article or not. A Civet cat climbs a coffee tree to eat ripe cherries at a farm in Indang, Cavite province south of Manila Photo: AP Most Expensive Coffee in the World Most Expensive Coffee in the World by tom 163 Comments The most expensive coffee in the world does not hail from Jamaica or Hawaii, but instead from Indonesia.

Kopi Luwak the most expensive coffee in the world does exist, and those who drink the expensive coffee insist that it is made from coffee beans eaten, partly digested and then excreted by the Common palm civet, a weasel-like animal. “Kopi” the Indonesian word for coffee along with “luwak” is local name of this animal which eats the raw red coffee beans. The civet digests the soft outer part of the coffee cherry, but does not digest the inner beans and excretes them. Apparently the internal digestion ends up adds a unique flavor to the beans, removing the bitter flavor, and then beans are then picked up by locals and sold. The most expensive coffee beans can cost up to $600 a pound, and up to $50 per cup, if you can get over the fact that you are drinking such a strange brew. You would know if you drank the most expensive coffee in the world, because the quantities of it are tiny amounts. The most expensive coffee in the world – All details about Kopi Luwak All About Kopi Luwak – The Most Expensive Coffee In The World! Kopi luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee.

The main factor of it’s high price is the uncommon method of producing such a coffee. It has been produced from the coffee beans which have been digested by a certain Indonesian cat-like animal called then palm civet or also civet cat . This is the reason kopi luwak is also called cat poop coffee or civet cat coffee. The feces of this cat will be collected, finished and sold as kopi luwak. On this website you will find all relevant information about the production process, the cat, certified kopi luwak producers, the kopi luwak coffee itself and it’s unique properties and taste. The short supply, in comparison with the high demand, the different taste and the uncommon production methods define the value of kopi luwak – the most expensive coffee in the world . Here is a price comparison of a kopi luwak coffee with an average coffee brand: kopi luwak (coffee production per year) Why is Kopi Luwak so special and the most expensive coffee? The most important reason of the coffee’s speciality is the production process.

Have a look at the pictures below to see how the most expensive coffee is produced: from beans fallen from a coffee tree to a cup of Kopi Luwak coffee. If you want more details about each step, just click on “more..” in each section. Hint: To enjoy Kopi Luwak, use regular sized coffee mugs . The coffee tree, Coffea, is a flowering evergreen plant native to tropical Africa and Asia. In the 17th century it was also imported to Latin-America. (more..) In fact, coffee beans are seeds and not beans. They contain caffeine as a plant defense against animals. However, this is no protection against the palm civet cat. (more..) During the digestion process the coffee cherries and the pulp are removed but the coffee beans are not digested. During this process some kind of unique fermentation occurs which is responsible for giving the civet coffee its special flavor. (more..) Palm civets, also known as civet cats, are small mammals which belong to the Viverridae family. Normally they prefer to eat just the ripest coffee cherries. In Indonesia these animals are known as luwaks.

(more..) After about 24 hours the coffee beans are defecated by the civet cat. In Southeast Asia these feces are considered golden. They are collected from farmers and processed into coffee. (more..) In the next steps the coffee beans are washed, dried, pounded to remove the skin, sorted and finally roasted . (more..) Kopi Luwak coffee can be brewed like any other coffee. Avoid using sugar, milk or cream in your kopi luwak, because with these ingredients you will not be able to taste its unique flavor. (more..) enjoy the cup! Important: You should pay attention when buying Kopi Luwak coffee! The keyword in this sense is animal friendly and “ authentic “, which means it’s coffee cherries have been eaten, digested and excreted by wild living and non-caged civet cat, collected by farmers and sold to roasters to prepare for human consumption.

The potential in selling of kopi Luwak is high, which allures alot business people trying to skim the market with wicked methods: 1.) “Fake” kopi luwak / Civet coffee A book about all the problems of fake kopi luwak Around 70% of kopi luwak coffee or civet coffee available at coffee stores and the Internet is NOT 100% pure kopi luwak and sometimes it does not contain anything of the genuine coffee. Mark Prince of the popular industry forum Coffee Geek has stated, “There is probably 5,000 percent more kopi luwak sold each year than there is actually produced; production of the legit stuff runs less than 5,000 pounds per year. Why? Because there’s lots of snake oil salesmen packaging up plain Jane inferior commodity grade Indonesian coffees under this banner and trying to get $300 per pound for it.” If you need a detail explanation of the fake potential of kopi luwak, we recommend reading “Don’t Buy kopi luwak Coffee Before You Read This Book” , which gives some great advices.

The “Fake” seller try to sell the “most expensive coffee” for a high price with low producing costs. 2.) “Cruel” kopi luwak farms / caged civet cats Natural kopi luwak, which is harmless to the animals, is found on plantation grounds and collected for roasting. Unfortunately, the farmers of this expensive bean found too high a demand for the coffee and started to harvest the beans unnaturally. Farmers stopped worrying about the natural cultivation of the product and rather looked for ways to yield the highest profit. The answer? Farmers gathered and caged an over-abundant amount of civets and started to almost exclusively feed them coffee beans. High-end pricing turned farming civet cats for kopi luwak coffee into a enslavement industry. Hundreds of the animals can be caged together where they fight or gnaw at their own limbs due to mental distress. Many farmers are uneducated on how to care for their animals and stand by as many succumb to illness and death. The differences between kopi luwak from farmed and wild civet cats: FARMED CIVET CATS No. 1 Most Expensive Coffee Comes From Elephant's No.

2 : The Salt : NPR No. 1 Most Expensive Coffee Comes From Elephant's No. 2 Embed Embed No. 1 Most Expensive Coffee Comes From Elephant's No. 2 No. 1 Most Expensive Coffee Comes From Elephant's No. 2 Embed Embed Enlarge this image Elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores. The fermentation happening in their gut as they break down cellulose helps remove the bitterness in the coffee beans. Here, an elephant receives medical treatment from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide caption toggle caption Michael Sullivan/NPR Elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores. The fermentation happening in their gut as they break down cellulose helps remove the bitterness in the coffee beans. Here, an elephant receives medical treatment from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. Michael Sullivan/NPR I s#&% you not: The world's most expensive coffee is now being produced in Thailand's Golden Triangle , a region better known for another high-priced, if illegal, export: opium. Canadian entrepreneur Blake Dinkin, 44, is betting his life savings that he can turn his idea into, well, gold.

Here's the catch: His Black Ivory Coffee is made by passing coffee beans through the not insubstantial stomachs of elephants and then picking the beans out of, well, yeah, that. It's similar to Kopi Luwak, the civet coffee that was all the rage a few years back; Dinkin has just supersized the idea. He knows Kopi Luwak's image has been trashed because of concerns over counterfeiting, disease and animal abuse. But he insists there's nothing fake — or frivolous — about Black Ivory Coffee. "There's easier ways to make money," he says. "I wouldn't spend 10 years and put my life savings on this if I didn't think it's for real, or I thought it was just going to be an overnight gag." Gag. Right. Let's just dispense with the jokes here and now, shall we? "Crappacino," "Brew No. 2," "Good to the last dropping" — Dinkin has heard them all. And while he's a good sport about it, it's clear he's tired of them, too. He'd rather talk about what makes his brew different — and better — than Kopi Luwak.

And it starts with the idea that elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores. "They eat a lot of grass and a lot of green, leafy matter. A herbivore, to break that down, utilizes fermentation to break down that cellulose," he says. "Fermentation is great for things like wine or beer or coffee, because it brings out the sugar in the bean, and it helps impart the fruit from the coffee pulp into the bean." And that fermentation that helps remove the bitterness, Dinkins says, is what makes his coffee unique. "I want people to taste the bean, not just the roast," he says. "The aroma is floral and chocolate; the taste is chocolate malt with a bit of cherry; there's no bitterness; and it's very soft, like tea. So it's kind of like a cross between coffee and tea." Black Ivory Coffee workers sort coffee beans out of elephant dung. Michael Sullivan/NPR To get to that point, the coffee beans are mixed into a mash with fruit, then fed to the elephants either by mouth, or hoovered right up the trunk. The latter pretty much sounds like a whole lot of change being sucked up a vacuum cleaner hose.

Article continues after sponsorship Then you wait anywhere from one to three days for the elephant to offload its cargo, pick the beans out of the elephant dung (if you can find it), lather, rinse, repeat. It's not always easy finding "the result," which is one of the reasons it takes about 33 pounds of coffee beans to make just 1 pound of Black Ivory Coffee. And it's not just the slower cooker that makes the coffee different, Dinkin says. He sources his Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand near the border with Myanmar. The drying process is long, and the roasting process is precise. And then there are the elephants. Specifically, how do you go about finding willing vessels? What would you do if some guy cold-called you and said he wanted to use your elephants as slow cookers? Blake Dinkin sources his Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand. The drying process is long, and the roasting process is precise. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide caption toggle caption Michael Sullivan/NPR Blake Dinkin sources his Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand. The drying process is long, and the roasting process is precise.

Michael Sullivan/NPR John Roberts, the director of the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, remembers this. "As long as we could prove that there was no caffeine or anything else harmful leaking out, then it was worth trying, at least," he says. Was Roberts worried about the elephants hitting the mash a little too hard? Not really. "It's not necessarily elephants getting buzzed that I'm too worried about, it's elephants missing their caffeine fix and having headaches and being bad-tempered. ... It's very dangerous. The last thing you want is a cranky elephant," says Roberts. So what does brew No. 2 taste like? I bought a serving — five or six espresso cups — for $70, and sat on the terrace of the five-star Anantara Golden Triangle hotel to watch Dinkin prepare the "experience." First, he ground it lovingly. Then he brewed it, again with love. And then, after it cooled, I was ready. A serving of Black Ivory Coffee at the five-star Anantara Golden Triangle hotel in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide caption toggle caption Michael Sullivan/NPR A serving of Black Ivory Coffee at the five-star Anantara Golden Triangle hotel in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Michael Sullivan/NPR The first thing that came to my (admittedly) juvenile mind was a scene from an Austin Powers movie where he says, "It's a bit nutty." And, in fact, the elephant poop coffee was a bit nutty, but also very flavorful and not at all bitter — just as Dinkin had promised. I then went inside to pimp a few cups to hotel guests. As luck would have it, the first I met was a Finn — and the Finns drink more coffee per capita than anyone else in the world. That made Juha Hiekkamaki the perfect subject as he sipped — tentatively. "Yes, that's very interesting, because usually I use sugar with coffee. But this is quite a gentle taste, and, yeah, I quite like that," he noted. Then it got better, because his wife, Claire, is a Brit, and she doesn't even drink coffee. Her verdict? "It's sort of fruity," she said. "Well, OK, it's raisin-y to me. I normally describe drinking coffee as a bit like drinking puddle water. But it hasn't got that horrible muddy water flavor afterwards, which is really nice.

I really like it." Don't expect Black Ivory in a Starbucks near you. Dinkin is selling an experience, limited for now to five-star hotels and resorts in Asia and the Middle East — and one tiny store in Comfort, Texas, called The Elephant Story, where the profits go to elephant conservation. "I'm not looking to produce a lot of this," Dinkin says. "I just want to keep it as a small, niche business. I get to work with people I really enjoy being with, I can make a decent living from it, and everyone's happy. That's what I want." He's still not quite there, but he says he's close to breaking even. Authenticating the world's most expensive coffee | Human World | EarthSky Authenticating the world’s most expensive coffee By Shireen Gonzaga in Human World | August 26, 2013 Coffee cherries eaten by palm civets create the world’s most expensive coffee. But blatant forgeries use beans that have never seen a civet’s insides. The most expensive coffee in the world is called kopi luwak..

It fetches as much as $200 per pound, but, due to its high demand and soaringly high price tag, it has been plagued with fraudulent imitations, claiming to be the real thing. For the first time, researchers from Indonesia and Japan have found a way to verify the authenticity of kopi luwak, by identifying a unique chemical fingerprint in the beans, caused by its partial digestion in the gut of a civet. They published their work in summer 2013 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Asian Palm Civet. Image credit: Praveenp, via Wikimedia Commons. In the Indonesian language, kopi means coffee, and luwak is the local name for the Asian palm civet. Kopi luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world, has a name that squeamishly hints at its origins: coffee cherries eaten by a palm civet spend about a day and a half in the animal’s digestive tract. Then, the beans are, to put it delicately, deposited on the ground, exiting from the civet’s rear. The droppings are collected, beans picked out and thoroughly cleaned, then roasted like conventional coffees.

Palm civet feces containing kopi luwak coffee beans, in Lampung, Indonesia. Image credit: Wibowo Djatmiko via Wikimedia Commons. Why on Earth would anyone want to drink kopi luwak? Enthusiasts all over the world, who love it enough to overlook how it’s produced, characterize this rare coffee as sublimely unique. And they’re not imagining it. Kopi luwak‘s unusual flavor is quite real; it has been shown, scientifically, that digestive juices and fermentation in the civet’s gut act on the beans, breaking down protein structures that reduce bitterness. Volatile compounds in coffee, responsible for aroma and flavor, are also altered. For obvious reasons, coffee beans “processed” by palm civets cannot be mass produced. That, and its reputation for exquisite flavor, has created high demand, driving kopi luwat prices to exorbitant heights. At $80 a cup, coffee brewed using beans harvested from civet feces had better be genuine and good. But reviews are mixed. An online search shows comments ranging from elated wonder to just plain … well, crappy. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste.

But kopi luwak fans also blame the bad reviews on cheap imitations. Coffee advertised as kopi luwak has been sold as a blend with cheaper beans. There have also been blatant forgeries using beans that have never seen the insides of a civet. Kopi luwak is so expensive that it’s sold in small packages for people who wish to sample it. I found a similar-sized package, just 2 oz., online for $50. The seller advertised it as originating from wild, not captive, civets. Image credit: teaandcakes via flickr.com. Is it possible to obtain definitive verification that particular coffee beans were eaten, then expelled, by a palm civet? In their study published this summer, Udi Jumhawan of Osaka University in Japan and his colleagues described the process that led to the development of the first scientific kopi luwak test. The team analyzed 21 coffee bean samples from different types of coffee to determine levels of certain substances in the samples, including citric and malic acids, that served as chemical fingerprints. Kopi luwak bore its own unique chemical signature, distinguishing it from other types of coffee.

The test was even accurate enough to tell if a sample was actually a blend of beans with at least 50% kopi luwak. Current demand for kopi luwak has created farms in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines where wild-caught civets are cruelly confined to cages and fed coffee cherries so their droppings can be collected. If a test that detects fake kopi luwak becomes widely available, the demand for authentic products could lead to more inhumane palm civets farms. So, if you’re not turned off by the source and cost of kopi luwak, and would still like to try it, please be careful about where you purchase it. Asian palm civet in a cage. Will the process of authenticating kopi luwak lead to more caged civets? Even if you read labels, disreputable sellers may not tell consumers the true source of their beans. To date, to our knowledge, there is no certification program for luwaks, as there is, for example, for fair-trade coffee or bird-friendly coffee. Image via Praveenp, via Wikimedia Commons. Kopi luwak beans being roasted at a small farm in Java, Indonesia.

The photographer commented that it had a nice smooth taste. Image credit: Stefan Garvander via flickr.com. Bottom line: Kopi luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world, is made from coffee beans found in the droppings of Asian palm civets. This unusual uniquely-flavored coffee has been difficult to authenticate, resulting in unscrupulous sellers passing off ordinary coffee or kopi luwat blended with cheap beans as the real deal. A new test developed by a team at the University of Osaka may soon put a stop to kopi luwat fraud; they have developed a way to identify unique chemical signatures in kopi luwat that can tell them apart from other types of coffee. Kopi Luwak - The Most Expensive Coffee Bean Health , Reviews 168 These days a trip down the coffee aisle of your favourite store can mean walking into a whole world of options: organic blends raised with environmentally friendly farming methods, beans from exotic locations, speciality harvests, and in some locations local brands and farmers. All of these options make for a lot of exciting opportunity to experiment with different flavours and sources of coffee, but some of them can also pack a bit of sticker shock.

High end brands, or organic coffee, can often come with a pretty hefty price tag. Yet while most consumers might be taken aback at the idea of paying £15 or more for a pound of coffee, there is a type of bean which makes even the most expensive organic brand at your local supermarket look like a bargain basement discount. This particular bean can cost as much as £350 per pound! So why would anyone pay that much for some coffee? The Somewhat Unpleasant Origins of the World’s Most Expensive Coffee Bean In the jungles of Southeast Asia, a creature known as the Asian Palm Civet is the source of the world’s most expensive and sought after coffee bean. The civet is a cat like creature native to Southeast Asia, which can be found in the trees and jungles. As part of their natural diet, civet cats seek out ripe and fresh coffee cherries from naturally growing coffee plants. Seeking out the freshest and highest quality coffee cherries, the civets eat small quantities of coffee cherries for their nutritional value. So how does this help eager connoisseurs get a better cup of coffee?

Well, it turns out that the world’s most expensive coffee bean is not for the queasy: the reason it is so highly sought after is because these beans have been passed through the digestive tract of the civet cat! The name given to these beans after they have been excreted by the civet cats is Kopi Luwak. Harvested from the dropping of the civet cats, Kopi Luwak possesses a unique flavour lent to it by its journey through the civet cat’s digestive system. Even though the process might seem disgusting, the results seem to speak for themselves: Kopi Luwak is widely regarded as one of the most delicious and desirable blends of coffee. This desirability, combined with the complexities of harvesting Kopi Luwak, have made it by far the most expensive coffee bean. Why All The Hype Around The Kopi Luwak? The question you are probably asking yourself now is why anyone in their right mind pay upwards of £350 for something which has already made its way through an animals digestive system. But as it turns out, there are several facets which lend to Kopi Luwak being altogether much more valuable after its encounter with the civet cat.

Firstly, civet cats in the wild are assumed to select only the best coffee beans for eating. This provides an incredible bean by bean selection process which truly selects the finest beans: far better service than any coffee farm could provide! Since only the very, very finest beans are consumed by the civet cat, once the Kopi Luwak is harvested it can be assured that no sub-standard beans have made their way into a customers batch. Of course, the process of being digested by a civet cat is also vital to the final product. Aside from selecting the finest beans, the civet cats also do a bit of chemistry on the beans as they move through their digestive tract. The civet cat feasts on the coffee cherry, which contains a fleshy lair surrounding the coffee bean. The fleshy part of the cherry is digested by the civet cat, but the coffee bean within is relatively unaffected. Enzymes within the civet cat’s digestive system do act on the coffee bean, making it less acidic, removing a small amount of caffeine, and stripping away a bit of protein. The result is a highly aromatic coffee bean, with a smooth taste and one of the least bitter coffees anywhere.

Kopi Luwak – A Rare Bean Indeed Traditionally Kopi Luwak beans were harvested from the droppings of wild civet cats in their native habitat. This means that the process of acquiring Kopi Luwak is utterly unlike any other form of coffee farming. Far from farming at all, it more resembles a hunt, carefully tracking animals and watching for their droppings. The faeces of the civet cat must be collected in large quantities, and is only likely to contain coffee beans in certain seasons. Once the faeces has been collected, it must be further washed, dried, de-skinned and eventually roasted before becoming ready for sale. Labour intensive, rare, and potentially unreliable in sourcing, every part of making Kopi Luwak is a challenge! Kopi Luwak Farming and Civet Cruelty Looking to capitalise on the high price and popular demand for Kopi Luwak, some unscrupulous farmers have taken it upon themselves to keep civets in cages on farms in the hopes of having their own ready source of Kopi Luwak.

This practice brings with it serious concerns about the welfare of the animal and the ethics of the practice: civet cats normally inhabit large ranges of jungle and do not adapt well to life in confinement. Civet cats are omnivorous and in the wild their diet consists of a wide range of foods, with coffee cherries often only making up a small part of their diet. In captivity, farmers often feed their civets coffee cherries to the exclusion of other foods in the hopes of getting higher Kopi Luwak yield. Forcing civets to consume coffee cherries as a primary part of their diet can bring with it dire consequences for the health of the animal, and also has a negative impact on the quality of the Kopi Luwak. Unable to select freely from entire forests of coffee cherries as a rare treat, civet cats are unable to perform their rigorous selection process for each cherry when they are forced to rely on the coffee cherry as a primary food source. This inability to be as selective, combined with the poor health of civets kept in confinement (in often cruel and unsuitable conditions,) leads to farm produced Kopi Luwak being of substantially inferior quality to traditionally harvested wild Kopi Luwak.

Do Your Homework If you’re thinking of trying out some Kopi Luwak, be very careful before you rush off to buy some online or even at a store. As it turns out, a huge quantity of Kopi Luwak on the market – most of it, in fact – is likely to be completely fake, containing little or no actual Kopi Luwak in the blend. Worse, it may have been sourced from farmer’s subjecting civet cats to cruel conditions for their own gain. Make sure you investigate your sources and be careful before diving in! Real Kopi Luwak is rare, expensive, and can be exceptionally difficult to source. But if you get a chance to try out the real stuff – don’t worry about civet faeces – give it a go. Share this: What is Cat Poop Coffee? (aka Kopi Luwak Coffee) The Cat What is Cat Poop Coffee? (Also Known as Kopi Luwak) Kopi Luwak or cat poop coffee is widely known as the rarest, most expensive coffee in the world. Retail prices have reaches as high as $80 a cup. Wow. It’s also the world’s rarest coffee bean too.

Here’s some more information about these uniquely processed, yet extremely expensive coffee beans: Cat poop coffee, aka Kopi Luwak, are the coffee berries that have once been eaten and excreted by a cat called the Asian Palm Civet . So basically, a cat called the Asian Palm Civet eats the berries from a coffee tree, then basically poops them out. From here, a farmer or coffee harvester would grab the defecated beans and begin processing them. How the Kopi Luwak coffee beans are created When the cats (civets) eat the coffee berries, fermentation of the coffee beans occurs in the cat’s digestive system. During this process, the cat’s proteolytic enzymes seep into the coffee beans, thus creating shorten peptide as well as an abundance of amino acids. This is what gives this coffee it’s unique flavor and aroma. So during this entire digestive process, the beans are transformed into the Kopi Luwak many coffee drinkers have grown to adore. This process is known to lower the bitterness of the coffee. Myths regarding a better brew with cat poop coffee Many coffee brewers and processors believe that having cats create Kopi Luwak results in a better coffee product.

They believe that since the cats choose to eat the coffee berries, the cats must be choosing the best coffee berry possible. After the cat eats the coffee berries and then poop them out, their digestive mechanism is then believed to improve the taste and flavor profile of the coffee. Where is the Cat Poop Coffee Produced? Kopi Luwak is mainly produced in Indonesia. The Indonesian island of Sumatra is the world’s largest regional producer of the coffee. There are also a few of these coffee farms in Vietnam and the Philippines. The History of Cat Poop Coffee This coffee was first originally discovered by Indonesian farmers in the early 1700s when they were working on Dutch coffee plantations. Since the Indonesians natives weren’t allowed to pick the coffee berries for themselves, they decided to acquire coffee beens in a different way- by picking them out of cat droppings. They would then take those coffee beans, roast them, and brew them. As the civet coffee became more popular with the natives, the Dutch started to catch on. As a result, the coffee became very in-demand. This, however, became an issue since the demand was high, but the quantity of civet coffee beans were low (very time consuming and unnatural process).

As a result, this coffee became very expensive. You can learn more about the history of this Indonesian coffee here. Coffee that comes from cat poop can’t taste good, right? Many people have mixed opinions regarding the taste of Kopi Luwak. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, this coffee just tastes like normal coffee beans. However, most coffee drinkers are able to distinguish a distinct taste. The coffee has low acidity and little flavor, but it is very smooth. Another thing about the taste of this coffee is that no two cups will taste exactly the same. Since the coffee beans go through a different cat’s digestive system, the tastes will vary. Since every cat/civet is different, it’s overall diet and even personal health is also different. These factors all can change the end taste of the defecated coffee beans. Many people believe that this coffee is only sold and drank for it’s unique story (cat eating and pooping the beans), not the overall taste and superior quality. Essentially, it’s just known as novelty coffee that people like to buy and drink because it’s so unique. This is some very interesting coffee.

We are going to end this post with a cameo that Kopi Luwak made in the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. 10 Best Cat Poop Coffees

Question: What is the name of the coffee bean, the most expensive in the world, which is eaten and excreted by the civet?
Answer: Kopi Luwak