In Bahasa Indonesian, the word for coffee is ‘Kopi’. The Asian palm civet which is native to Southeast Asia is referred to as Luwak in Indonesia, illustrated in the image below. The Asian palm civet belongs to the Viverridae family of animals. Some call it a cat. However it is not a cat.
Coffee from a civet? What?!
Coffee from Indonesia, known as Kopi Luwak, is produced from beans that have been consumed and then passed out by the civet. Yep, you heard that right. The farmers deliberately target civet excrement, which they then gather together with the coffee beans for further refinement and treatment. What is the most outrageous feature of these coffee beans? These beans go for hundreds of dollars per pound!
The high price is due to the lengthy cultivation process of Kopi Luwak beans, which is different from other types of coffee beans. This bean is defined by its processing. Initially, a civet will select the coffee beans carefully and after they are eaten, the beans travel through the digestive system and ferment. The civet digestive system contains digestive enzymes that cause the proteins in the bean to be broken down. It is assumed that these steps contribute to the complete taste of Kopi Luwak, making it a truly original blend of coffee beans. Thus, it is critical to have these processes in place for the making of the authentic beverage.
So how did this seemingly disgusting idea turn lucrative?
In the nineteenth century, the Dutch East Indies’ territories of Java and Sumatra produced Arabica Coffee from plantations. The Dutch did not let the local employees take coffee fruit off the tree, however they were allowed to get the coffee beans that had dropped from the tree. It didn’t take long for the locals to realize the civets ate the fruits and excreted out the undigested seeds in their waste. The colonists gathered, wiped clean, roasted and grounded coffee beans for their own needs which ended up becoming a well-known practice across the colonies. It took quite a while to collect the coffee beans from the droppings of wild civets, so the product became quite costly. It has been reported that the surge of interest and demand in this dish began when people began to visit Bali in greater numbers for tourism purposes.
It’s about the journey
This coffee commands such a substantial cost because the conventional techniques of making it require a great deal of energy and effort. Agriculturalists look in woodlands and areas where each pluck yields five to six beans. Farmers agree that the most appropriate moment to discover civet droppings is at the break of dawn, as the animals are night creatures. It takes a significant amount of time to acquire enough beans to make pounds of production since there is no streamlined, high-efficiency system for gathering and cleansing the beans. The cleaning process is strenuous – since it is known that foodborne diseases are often caused by fecal contamination. This could be the nastiest food that is loaded with waste material.
Kopi Luwak farmers from a plantation in Indonesia describe their cleaning process:
We collect the beans and then proceed to clean them by washing them to remove the outside layer. Afterwards, we set them out to dry in the heat of the Indonesian sun. We do a second washing after the drying process to make sure all of the outer casing has been taken off. At this point we re-dry the beans again. Prior to shipping, the beans are roasted to 220 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, no bacteria can survive.”
The expensive process of making kopi luwak coffee
Kopi luwak coffee has a unique journey from start to finish, commencing with the Asian palm civet.
Many people colloquially refer to the civet as a “civet cat”; however, this petite, night-dwelling, tropical creature is in fact more aligned to a mongoose than a housecat.
Even though people keep on calling kopi luwak “cat poop coffee,” this does not precisely explain the drink.
The civet eats the ripe coffee berries from coffee trees that have attained their peak of sweetness. Roughly 24 hours after consumption, the civet poops out the sought-after partially digested remains of the cherries.
The beans which have been processed from the coffee cherries are employed in the making of kopi luwak.
It may not sound very appetizing nor hygienic, but the particular way the beans for kopi luwak are gathered is why it commands such a high price.
How much does kopi luwak coffee cost?
By 2022, kopi luwak had attained the title of the priciest coffee around the globe. Coffee aficionados travel overseas just to enjoy this unique cup of coffee.
The most of the kopi luwak coffee globally is made in Indonesia. This nation proudly boasts ample coffee plantations, which have become popular places to visit for tourists.
Visitors can experience this distinctive coffee for only $4. Outside of Indonesia, however, the prices skyrocket, as shown in the chart below:
| Quantity of Kopi Luwak | Indonesia | Outside of Indonesia |
| Cup of Coffee | ~$4 | $35-100 |
| Farmed Beans (per kg) | ~$30 | ~$200+ |
| Wild Beans (per kg) | ~$60 | ~$600-1300+ |
These prices are based on 100 percent unadulterated, genuine kopi luwak. Lafayette College reports that potentially up to 70 percent of marketed kopi luwak could be counterfeit.
Many different kinds of kopi luwak are available for sale, but only those with a minimum of 1% kopi luwak in them are legally allowed to have the term “kopi luwak” in their labeling.
Why is kopi luwak coffee so expensive?
A number of factors account for the extravagant cost of kopi luwak, with the most prominent being the challenging collection and cultivation techniques as well as the dynamics of supply and demand.
Kopi luwak harvesting methods
The following are the practices used to acquire cherries and their drawbacks.
Wild collected berries
Gathering undigested cherries from civet feces is a laborious and not pleasurable task.
Workers not only have to identify where civets reside, but they also need to look for and accumulate their droppings. This experience can be quite aggravating, especially in the sweltering climate of Indonesia.
After the workers have identified dung that has coffee cherries in it, they go through it one by one, selecting only the matured, partially processed cherries.
Workers select the beans from the droppings of the civet, then subjecting them to a washing, drying and roasting process. This results in the yummy, aromatic, deep coffee beans that are later sealed for purchase.
Occasionally, they turn the beans into a powder to offer grounded coffee for purchase (or to make drinks for their store, in case they own one).
Farmed berries
Berries farmed on a commercial scale necessitate an enormous amount of manual effort. Farmers need to put in a lot of effort to cultivate coffee plants so that the civets will be provided with mature cherries to eat.
The plantation owners raise civets, and when the cherries are ripe, they give them to the confined civets as food.
After about a day, the workers collect the excrement. They take the coffee beans out of the poop, clean them, let them dry, and then bake them.
Sadly, the technique used for growing these berries is not as morally acceptable as the approaches used for those taken from the wild. The housing for the civets is usually tight and unclean.
Animal rights activists are very vocal in their opposition to kopi luwak coffee due to the mistreatment of the animals involved in the process.
Kopi luwak supply and demand
It is generally believed that approximately 1,100 pounds (499 kg) of wild kopi luwak is produced each year.
It is believed that the total amount of kopi luwak produced on farms yearly is about 45,360 kilograms, which is equal to 100,000 pounds.
Yet, a paper released by the Ontario Agricultural College refutes these figures, asserting only 500 pounds (227 kg) of true kopi luwak is produced annually.
No matter what figures you accept, they are inadequate when stacked up against the demand, which significantly impacts the cost.
The high cost of kopi luwak is in part due to the labor involved in the production process and its particular taste, which some people think is superior.
Kopi luwak quality
It is said by the makers of Indonesia’s kopi luwak that the beans obtained from the partially digested coffee fruits create a higher caliber of coffee.
Civets are described as choosing only the most perfectly ripened coffee cherries. After one drinks them, the digestion process breaks down the beans, reducing some of their harshness and acidity, which leads to a more enjoyable taste.
In addition to this, the outer layer of coffee cherries that is full of fruit dissolves, so mold cannot develop.
Is kopi luwak worth the price?
It is a judgment call as to whether or not kopi luwak is worth the amount of money it costs. Kopi luwak’s worth is based upon several elements, such as taste, cost, and the perspective on creature rights.
Where there’s money, there’s a will to produce
It was anticipated that an increase in bean price would cause unconventional manufacturers to search for a better way to create a greater quantity of Kopi Luwak, causing a few debates.
Reports of inhumane treatment of animals arose between the years 2012 and 2013 resulting from the confinement of civets in cages and their being fed coffee beans. The government was made aware of these methods as a way to put an end to individuals employing merciless practices to grow coffee. The eventual criticism of the mass production of Kopi Luwak caused a lot of people to rally behind a ban of it. This opinion had a great deal of support because it decreased the earnings of the traditional growers who make money through Kopi Luwak production.
Yet, thechanging of a coffee bean by the civet began to be looked upon with admiration instead of horror. The popularity of beans grew immensely during the middle of the 90’s, and marketers took advantage by featuring pictures of civets on the packaging. Approximately 3.5 ounces of Luwak beans were priced from $40 to $80. Different varieties of beans that have been processed in a manner that is similar to Kopi Luwak have been created, yet they have not accrued the same level of acclaim as the wild version of this coffee.
Despite the booming industrialized production of Kopi Luwak, it has also met criticism for being of a lesser quality. Some people with traditional beliefs maintain that the beans chosen by civets have an impact on the overall flavor of coffee, and that the flavor profile of the coffee is special due to a combination of the beans selected, and then being processed by the digestive tract of the civet.
This particular type of coffee has attained such an elevated status that many shamelessly attempt to pass off fake beans as the real thing. Scientists have come up with methods to examine the beans with the aim of keeping them unchanged. These methods include metabolomics and gas chromatography. Metabolomics investigates the compounds that are created from particular biological activities in cells, depicting the current physiological condition of a living creature. Jumhawan et al. (2013) employed metabolite profiling to distinguish between ordinary and civet coffee using their metabolic markers. They center their attention on methods of making regulation more cost-effective and streamlined.
Making sure the Kopi Luwak was good meant making sure that the beans had been collected from wild civets. A London-based coffee expert partnered with British companies to create a certification program for Kopi Luwak, guaranteeing that the beans were sourced from wild civets, instead of those that were locked up in cages.
Kopi Luwak flavor profile
In the past, the bean was preferred for its flavorful taste compared to regular coffee beans that had dropped on the ground. Reports indicate that Kopi Luwak has a distinctive taste which is described as silky, chocolatey, and without a lingering aftertaste, as well as having an earthy, muddy, syrup-like quality, combined with both forest and chocolate notes.
Other roasters agree that the flavor is much smoother than usual and the floral and fruity flavors come from the enzymes breaking down as the beans pass through the civet. It is thought that digestive enzymes can split up the protein particles which usually contribute to the bitter flavor of a cup of coffee.
Marcone (2004) has analyzed the coffee beans. With the aid of Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scientists were able to generate an extremely precise image of the outside of the coffee bean.
A Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to make an incredibly detailed representation of the coffee bean’s surface by sending a beam of electrons to interact with the atoms.
Final thoughts
From an economic point of view, the only way to get a genuine, cheap cup of wild kopi luwak would be to journey to Indonesia.
Due to its limited supply and great desire for it, the cost of the coffee has risen drastically, making it hard to get a hold of it without making a noticeable withdrawal from your finances.
Sadly, due to its rarity, and the prevalence of sales geared toward visitors, there has seen a dramatic increase in bogus and false products claiming to be Kopi luwak.
If you can identify an honest, reliable provider of wild civet coffee and can afford it, it may be worth a try.