Kopi Luwak is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, originating from coffee beans that undergo natural fermentation inside the Indonesian civet. This unique processing method greatly reduces the bitterness of the coffee beans, making the taste smooth and mellow. However, industry opinions on it are sharply divided. The SCAA bluntly states that its quality is mediocre, and a columnist for The Washington Post even gave it a scathing negative review. Is Kopi Luwak's selling point its story or its flavor? This article will sort out its origin and production areas, fermentation principles, and development history, and share the correct brewing and tasting methods, taking you through a comprehensive understanding of this highly talked-about coffee.

The raw material of Kopi Luwak comes from the excrement of the Indonesian palm civet (a type of civet), hence the name. This animal feeds mainly on coffee cherries, and the coffee beans undergo fermentation in its stomach, where proteins are broken down, producing short peptides and more free amino acids, which weakens the bitterness of the coffee. Since the coffee beans cannot be digested, they are excreted intact, and after washing and roasting, they become Kopi Luwak. Coffee critic Chris Rubin once described it as having a strong, rich wine-like aroma, a coffee texture so thick it is almost syrupy, mellow like chocolate, with a finish that lingers on the tongue and a pure aftertaste.

The palm civet is an omnivore. Besides eating seeds, it also preys on insects, snakes, birds, and amphibians and reptiles, so the feces of truly wild palm civets often contain a mixture of various residues. In Indonesia, some farmers capture palm civets and keep them in captivity, feeding them coffee beans specifically for production. But there are ultimately differences between captive breeding and natural wild conditions.

Civet Coffee

Civet Coffee (5 photos)

In the coffee industry, Kopi Luwak is generally regarded as a product whose selling point is novelty. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) once stated that the industry consensus is that it tastes bad. The SCAA cited a coffee expert's assessment: Obviously, Kopi Luwak's selling point lies in its story rather than its quality. By SCAA standards, its score is two points lower than the lowest score among the other three coffees. It can be inferred that Kopi Luwak's processing dilutes fine acidity and flavor, making the taste flatter. Of course, many people also seem to regard this flatness as one of its advantages.

Tim Carman, a food columnist for The Washington Post, once reviewed Kopi Luwak sold in the United States and concluded that it tasted just like Folger coffee, like a rotten, lifeless flavor, like petrified dinosaur dung soaked in bathwater, and he could not finish it.

The palm civet prefers to select the ripest, sweetest, plumpest, and most juicy coffee cherries on the tree as food. After the coffee cherries pass through its digestive system, only the outer flesh is digested, and the extremely hard raw coffee beans are then excreted unchanged.

During this digestive process, the coffee beans undergo an incredible transformation, developing a unique flavor and an especially fragrant, mellow taste. The rich, smooth, sweet flavor is difficult for other coffee beans to match. This is because the palm civet's digestive system breaks down the proteins in the coffee beans, greatly reducing the bitterness contributed by proteins while instead increasing a smooth mouthfeel.

Wild palm civets are clearly better at selecting high-quality coffee cherries, thereby giving this coffee outstanding characteristics.

Coffee Sources Editor

Civet coffee (Kopi Luwak): Kopi means coffee in Indonesian, and Luwak is the Indonesian term for the arboreal wild animal commonly known as the civet.

In the Sumatra region of Indonesia, locals call the civet Musang rather than the Luwak commonly used by outsiders. Kopi Musang is civet coffee (also translated as Musang coffee), commonly known as cat poop coffee. — From "Fine Coffee Studies"

Kopi Luwak is produced in Indonesia and is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Indonesia grows a large amount of coffee crops, and locally there is a wild civet, an omnivore with a pointed muzzle and dark gray fur, which loves fresh coffee beans most. The coffee beans ferment and are digested in its body, and are finally excreted with feces. Inside the feces are coffee beans, one by one, making it also the most expensive feces in the world. Because it is scarce, the price is extremely high. Civets are distributed in Indochina, northeastern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Kashmir, and other places, but only the Sumatra civet, namely the Indonesian civet, can produce Kopi Luwak.

Civet feces

Civet feces

After processing and roasting, Kopi Luwak becomes a luxury beverage and has spread to luxury markets around the world. In pursuit of high profits, local coffee farmers catch wild civets and keep them at home to produce more Kopi Luwak. However, the Kopi Luwak produced by captive civets is correspondingly inferior in quality and taste. Even so, this coffee remains very scarce in production, and not all coffee lovers can afford it.

This coffee comes from the excrement of an animal called the civet. Although it comes from smelly feces, one sip fills the mouth with fragrance and an indescribable sweetness. Wild civets like to eat plump, juicy coffee cherries, but the hard cores (green beans) cannot be digested and are excreted with the feces. After being cleaned, they become Kopi Luwak green coffee beans, which is why many people call it cat poop coffee. Indonesians discovered that coffee beans fermented in the civet's stomach and intestines are especially thick and mellow, so they collected the excrement, filtered out the coffee beans, and brewed them for drinking. Because production is scarce and the fermentation process is unique, the flavor is quite different from ordinary coffee. Traditionally, coffee cherries are processed by washing or sun-drying, removing the skin, pulp, and parchment layer, and finally extracting the coffee beans; Luwak, however, uses natural fermentation inside the body to extract the coffee beans, giving it a special flavor.

It is said that early Indonesian coffee farmers regarded civets that specialized in eating ripe coffee cherries as mortal enemies, but at some point someone thought of picking coffee beans out of civet feces to make a uniquely flavored coffee. Coffee experts from various places who tried it were full of praise. From then on, during every coffee harvest season, local farmers spent a great deal of time each day collecting civet feces in the forest.

Development History Editor

Montanas, the company that first introduced Kopi Luwak to the United States, pointed out that when it first heard of this internally fermented coffee, it thought it was an industry joke and did not take it seriously. Later, after seeing a special report on Kopi Luwak in National Geographic magazine, it became interested. It took a full seven years to find a stable supply source and began importing it to the United States in small quantities. How does this coffee taste? Generally speaking, Indonesian coffee has an earthy flavor and a medicinal herbal taste, and its body is also the highest among all continents, but Kopi Luwak's earthy, gamey flavor and body are even stronger, with a body almost close to syrup and a very special aroma. If you already do not like Indonesian coffee, you will certainly dislike Kopi Luwak even more; if you prefer the earthy, gamey flavor of aged beans, you may fall in love with this alternative coffee. Experts who have tasted Kopi Luwak give polarized evaluations, and some describe it as the finest coffee in the world. Although it is a premium product, whether one is willing to spend thousands of yuan to drink a cup of cat poop coffee is a matter of personal preference.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.