Kopi Luwak: The World's Peculiar Coffee Bean

Are you tired of having the same old coffee every morning? How about some coffee produced from animal feces? What do you think about that? “Wait, is it even a thing?” “Can you drink the animal's waste?” you might wonder. Yes, it does exist, and it is known as Kopi Luwak. Before you conclude that poop coffee is repulsive, consider this: Let us take you on a journey to explore this coffee — Kopi Luwak, which is, in reality, one of the most expensive coffees in the world!

Table of Contents

Origin

Process

Taste

Why Is It Expensive?

Conclusion

FAQ

Origin

Kopi Luwak (Indonesian for "civet coffee") is a coffee beans that is chewed, fermented, and excreted by the Asian palm civet, also known as a Luwak in Indonesia but prevalent across South and Southeast Asia. During the colonial period of the nineteenth century, when the Dutch prevented local employees from collecting their coffee, native farmers in Indonesia found and harvested the coffee bean produced in this method.

Process

The nocturnal animal species of cat known as the civet is the principal protagonist in the entire process of creating Kopi Luwak. The civets begin by feeding on the reddish-colored coffee cherries, which contain coffee beans on the interior. After passing through the civet cats' jaws and into the digesting stage, the cherries and pulp are eliminated, but the coffee beans remain intact and unprocessed.

Within 24 hours, palm civets, or Luwaks as they are known in Indonesia, excrete the leftover coffee beans. Farmers will then pick them and take them through the following processes: washing, drying, skin removal, sorting, and finally roasting the beans.

Taste

Kopi Luwak differs from other forms of coffee due to the added fermented flavor imparted by the civets' digestive enzymes during the fermentation process. This fermentation gives Kopi Luwak a distinct flavor, making it "earthy, creamy, and rich with chocolate undertones."

Another distinguishing feature of Kopi Luwak flavor is its low bitterness. Everyone knows that the signature flavor of coffee is bitterness, caused by the high concentration of proteins in coffee beans during the roasting process. However, because luwaks' digestion breaks down most coffee proteins before excretion, civet coffee is less bitter than regular coffee.

Kopi Luwak Beans.

Why Is It Expensive?

Civet coffee is so expensive because - who wants to collect cat excrement and pick out the coffee beans? Because Luwaks are omnivores who eat a wide range of items, from insects to plants, farmers must wait for days to collect very vast amounts of their feces, only to reap a small amount of the highly sought-after Kopi Luwak coffee beans. The price per pound ranges between $100 and $500. In a café, a cup of civet coffee may cost between $35 and $80.

Conclusion

For various reasons, Kopi Luwak deserves to be recognized as one of the world's most expensive coffees. The most significant description to characterize Kopi Luwak is "unusual." We hope that all the information about Kopi Luwak that we have provided is enough to entice you to save up and try this incredibly daring coffee that is truly created from animal dung.