From rare beans priced at hundreds of dollars per kilogram to the classic flavors of Jamaican Blue Mountain and Cuban Crystal Mountain, the world's famous coffee beans are often intertwined with natural gifts and human legends. This article systematically sorts out the unique processing method and the reasons for the high price of civet coffee (kopi luwak), reviews the spread of coffee since 500 AD, introduces the many uses of coffee in medicine, diet, and daily life, and explains in detail the origin, grading, and taste characteristics of Blue Mountain coffee and Cubita coffee. For coffee lovers pursuing quality, the article also specifically mentions Front Street brand recommendations and related product information, helping readers, while learning about the world's top coffees, find choices worth tasting.
Many people have heard of world-famous premium coffees such as civet coffee and kopi luwak, and probably also know that they are astonishingly expensive, with some understanding of the stories behind them. But when it comes to what exactly makes the world's top coffees so expensive and what makes them so wonderful to drink, have you ever had the urge to try a truly world-class coffee for yourself?
There is a kind of coffee bean priced at 600 dollars per kilogram, and compared with Blue Mountain coffee beans, which are famous for their perfect taste and cost 700 dollars per kilogram, it is only slightly cheaper. It is civet coffee beans.
Kopi Luwak
What exactly are civet coffee beans? According to the convention of naming coffee beans after their place of origin, could it be that they come from civets?
In fact, these coffee beans grow in Indonesia and originally belong to a very ordinary variety. But after undergoing the special "deep processing" of civets, they leap to become a top-grade product, and their value skyrockets accordingly.
Civet
Local civets prefer ripe coffee cherries. The structure of a coffee cherry is similar to that of a walnut, with a standard skin and pulp, while humans mainly eat the kernel inside. After a civet eats the coffee cherries, it does not take long before it excretes the indigestible kernels—that is, the coffee beans. Indonesians pick them up, wash them, roast them, and then resell them to buyers. Local people have thus become wealthy; they only need to follow the civets around all day to pick up "golden coffee beans." Civets there enjoy extremely high respect and care, since they are the功臣 who can "turn droppings into gold."
The wonder of these coffee beans lies in the fact that the civet's digestive system happens to replace the manual processes of peeling, fermenting, and removing the mucilage from coffee cherries, and the effect is even better than manual processing. Coffee beans processed by civets develop an especially charming flavor; beans processed by different civets also have their own characteristics, and coffee tasters evaluate the coffee brewed from beans excreted by different civets much as they would taste red wines from different regions and vintages.
Civet coffee bean fruit
Since a shepherd in the Ethiopian desert first discovered coffee, more than 1,500 years have passed. The development of coffee has been full of hardships and legends—a rich and colorful 1,500 years.
In 500 AD, the shepherd Kaldi first discovered the wonderful uses of coffee; in 525 AD, the first coffee tree was planted on the Arabian Peninsula; in 1475 AD, the first coffee house was born in Constantinople; in 1615 AD, coffee spread from Venice to Europe; in 1620 AD, it spread to the North American continent; in 1690 AD, coffee spread from the port of Mocha to Asia; in 1723 AD, the French officer de Clieu brought coffee seedlings to the Americas; in 1893 AD, coffee was planted in Kenya and Tanzania; in 1902 AD, missionaries brought coffee seeds to Zhukula in Yunnan; in 2000 AD, coffee became the first of the world's four major beverages, with annual consumption reaching 400 billion cups.
The benefits of coffee
Coffee can be used to extract caffeine, which is used in medicine as an anesthetic, stimulant, diuretic, and cardiotonic; coffee pulp can be used to brew alcohol, make vinegar, and also serve as feed, fertilizer, and fuel. Coffee is one of the world's three major beverage crops.
Alcohol or tobacco can intoxicate and excite people, and caffeine can likewise bring a feeling of excitement. Caffeine can stimulate the central nervous system or muscles, help muscles or fatigue recover, improve work efficiency, have an awakening effect, and also make the mind react more lively and agile.
On the other hand, coffee can also improve heart function, dilate blood vessels, promote blood circulation, relieve headaches, and make people feel mentally at ease. In addition, because it stimulates the sympathetic nerves, it can suppress asthma caused by excitation of the parasympathetic nerves. Coffee also aids digestion, especially when too much meat has been eaten, as it promotes gastric juice secretion, helps digestion, and prevents gastroptosis. Caffeine can break down fat, so Westerners always drink coffee after eating high-calorie foods. Although caffeine cannot eliminate the smell of garlic, it contains areca-like components, so after tasting strongly flavored dishes, coffee is an indispensable drink.
In addition, coffee also has a deodorizing effect. After drying used ground coffee residue and placing it in a container, it can be put in the refrigerator or a shoe cabinet as a deodorizer; sprinkled in an ashtray, it can also eliminate the smell of tobacco. Coffee can also be used to mask flavors; for example, dissolving instant coffee in boiling water and letting the flavor adhere to meat can make sweet and delicious meat dishes.
Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain coffee is a type of coffee with very high public recognition, produced only in the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica in Central America. Only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain region at an altitude of more than 1,800 meters can be authorized to use the "Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee" mark, and this portion accounts for 15% of Jamaica's total Blue Mountain coffee output. Coffee grown between 457 meters and 1,524 meters above sea level is called High Mountain coffee, while coffee grown between 274 meters and 457 meters above sea level is called Jamaica coffee. Blue Mountain coffee has a mellow aroma, bitterness with sweetness, is smooth and easy to drink, and also has a slight acidity, which can make the sense of taste more sensitive and allow one to appreciate its unique flavor. It can be called the finest of coffees.
Cubita
Cubita
Cubita coffee is produced in Cuba's Crystal Mountain and also enjoys a very high reputation in the coffee industry. Cuban Crystal Mountain coffee ranks among the top in the world; Crystal Mountain is geographically adjacent to Jamaica's Blue Mountain range, with similar climatic conditions, and its quality can rival Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Cubita adheres to the principle of perfect coffee, making only single-origin coffee; the coffee beans are picked by hand and processed by the washed method to ensure coffee quality. Cubita is like an elegant princess, possessing noble, tender, and graceful characteristics, with excellent balance, and the bitterness and acidity are perfectly matched; when tasted, it gives a delicate, smooth, refreshing, and elegant feeling. It is the designated coffee of the Cuban embassy and is called a unique Caribbean-flavor coffee.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
