Authentic Wild Sumatran Kopi Luwak Coffee: Price and Characteristics

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Coffee enthusiasts generally know that Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is among the finest in the world, but do you know what the most expensive coffee in the world is? The title of most expensive coffee undoubtedly belongs to Kopi Luwak (Indonesian Civet Coffee). As scarcity commands value, Kopi Luwak retails for at least six hundred dollars per pound, earning it the reputation as the Rolls-Royce of coffees.

Kopi Luwak, also known as "civet coffee," has limited annual production, making it a favorite among the wealthy circle. When FrontStreet Coffee first tried civet coffee, it revealed a special herbal aroma with excellent body.

History - European Greed and Farmers' Discovery

From a historical perspective, why would anyone search for coffee in feces? This question seems perplexing, but through historical records, we can find both the reasons and the discoverers.

During the Age of Exploration, European powers sought to acquire more land worldwide. Taiwan was once an island colonized by the Dutch and Spanish, while Indonesia, the island of civets, was also occupied by the Dutch, who even established the so-called "East India Company," a government agency wielding significant power.

Indonesian farmers, under the threat of force, became cheap labor for the Dutch. Early on, they cultivated spices, while in the middle and later periods, they grew coffee. Tropical Indonesian crops were very popular in Europe, earning the Dutch substantial profits. During the Age of Exploration, which country didn't treat local people this way? Many European nations laid certain foundations during this time, and now perhaps they only know that their ancestors were formidable leaders worldwide...

However, the farmers had never tasted the coffee they grew themselves—a problem that persists to this day. At that time, farmers dared not secretly harvest crops, as severe punishment awaited those discovered. But curiosity cannot be stopped. When someone discovered coffee beans remaining in civet feces, they found that after processing, it produced excellent coffee. It seemed they could finally understand why the Western world loved coffee so much—even that retrieved from animal feces tasted so good.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long. When the Dutch learned of this matter, collecting civet coffee became another new task, and that special flavor could no longer be enjoyed.

Bean Source: Wild or Farmed?

All of this is merely for a luxury item—and a second-rate one at that. Experts say the uniqueness of civet coffee lies in wild civets selectively choosing coffee fruits; but when confined to cages and fed random coffee fruits, the resulting product won't be particularly good.

Furthermore, a coffee expert, in an article for the Specialty Coffee Association of America, stated that civet coffee wasn't actually that good to begin with: although the civet's digestive process does make coffee smoother, it simultaneously removes the good acidity and flavors that are the characteristics of specialty coffee.

Currently, no method exists to distinguish whether civet coffee beans come from wild or captive civets. In 2013, the BBC conducted an undercover investigation and found that some European coffees marketed as wild civet coffee actually came from inhumanely treated captive civets.

Even Tony Wild, the coffee trader who introduced civet coffee to the Western world, stated in an article for Britain's The Guardian that civet coffee should not be consumed. He said this type of coffee has become increasingly industrialized, more abusive to animals, and frequently counterfeit. Currently, no certification mechanism can prove that "wild" coffee is truly wild. Additionally, while other coffee certification organizations ensure reliable coffee cultivation and production, these organizations refuse to certify civet coffee.

New York's Rainforest Alliance and other renowned coffee certification organizations issue certification seals based on Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards. These standards prohibit farms from hunting wild animals, and SAN regulations for Indonesian coffee explicitly prohibit caged civets.

UTZ is another important sustainable coffee certification standard that similarly prohibits farms from keeping wild animals in cages and refuses to certify civet coffee.

Alex Morgan of the Rainforest Alliance said that certifying civet coffee is too risky because it's impossible to ensure that the beans' origin is 100% wild. He said: "My personal recommendation is to avoid this type of coffee as much as possible—it usually comes from caged animals."

Indonesian Sumatra Kopi Luwak Specialty Coffee

Among various civet coffees, the most expensive is Indonesian wild original beans, followed by Philippine varieties, with Vietnamese versions being relatively cheaper. There are also so-called "Grade A" civet coffees on the market, where coffee beans are excreted by artificially fed civets, or possibly by other animals. Wild civets live in nature and freely select beans. Because these cats are picky eaters—they won't eat bad quality and only choose freshly ripe fruits, not old ones—the coffee beans they select are always the highest quality, flawless. This quality cannot be guaranteed with fed animals, and the excreted beans vary in quality. Coffee beans are evaluated by experts and international buyers through cupping for aroma and concentration. Ordinary consumers find it difficult to determine the true quality of coffee from packaging appearance alone.

Actually, its principle is quite simple: using lactic acid bacteria and digestive fluids from the animal's digestive tract to replace machines or washing methods to remove pulp and the pectin attached to the bean surface. These beans are excreted with feces, and after cleaning, become precious internally fermented beans one by one. Besides the commonly heard civet, other animals used for this coffee processing method include guans, monkeys, and elephants, but the latter few haven't formed scale production—only civets stand out uniquely.

Civets mainly inhabit tropical rainforests and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest edges below 2100 meters altitude, in hills, mountains, and other terrains, selecting rock caves, soil burrows, or tree holes as habitat sites.

Civets have omnivorous feeding habits. Animal-based foods include small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, and insects such as rodents, small birds, snakes, frogs, fish, crabs, bird eggs, insects, earthworms, and wild fowl. Plant-based foods include stems and leaves of Solanaceae plants, seeds of various figs, and fruits like布渣果 and winter cherries. However, civets have poor plant digestion ability, so eating berries is equivalent to their after-dinner dessert, while their main food is meat.

Because of their poor plant digestion ability, they mainly live in broad-leaved forests, shrublands, and agricultural areas in South Asia and Southeast Asia. These areas are also suitable environments for coffee tree growth, so many of the winter cherries that civets eat are actually coffee berries. What civets can digest are only the berry skin and pulp parts. The berry pit inside—the coffee bean—will eventually be excreted from the body.

These coffee bean varieties are generally dominated by Robusta because civets' active range is at low to medium altitudes, so most coffee varieties are Robusta. High-altitude Arabica civet coffee production is scarce. Indonesia's low-altitude Robusta coffee originally carries earthy and herbal medicinal flavors, with high body density. Therefore, this civet coffee has the earthy flavor of aged beans, with body density almost approaching syrup and very special aroma. Those who prefer the earthy flavor of Indonesian aged beans or Indian monsooned beans might fall in love with the flavor of civet coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Perspective on Civet Coffee

In recent years, many people have begun boycotting civet coffee due to cruelty issues. But the fact is, civet coffee itself is not at fault. The original production of civet coffee beans was simply a very natural phenomenon. Civets, in their most natural environment, eat the most suitable food—coffee berries they choose themselves, ripe fruits with high sugar content—and excrete the coffee beans they cannot digest. This is animal nature and a very natural occurrence.

Early on, local people collected wild civet feces in forests, extracted undigested coffee seeds, and processed them into green beans. Due to limited production and unique internal fermentation methods, many businessmen later spotted business opportunities and began大规模捕捉 civets for cage farming. Civets, which should eat meat, could only eat coffee berries. The nutritional components in coffee berries cannot maintain civets' health.

They believe that although coffee beans are not digested in the civet's digestive tract, the highly corrosive digestive fluids have corroded their surface. These digestive fluids contain a special protease that can break down the original protein chains of coffee beans, decomposing long-chain proteins into small particles, forming short-chain peptides and amino acids.

But in fact, because they long-term consume only coffee berries, civets may excrete coffee beans within just one or two hours after consumption. Coffee beans remaining in a civet's stomach for one or two hours are insufficient to produce the series of changes mentioned above. The beans remain essentially the same as when consumed, and even if there are flavor changes, they are minimal.

FrontStreet Coffee can say that the formation of civet coffee itself is not problematic. Civets, through their sense of smell, identify ripe coffee fruits—similar to how Ethiopia's red cherries are also harvested from fully ripe coffee. The problem lies with those who cage civets, forcing them to eat coffee berries regardless of ripeness, just to increase civet coffee production, leading to these cruel incidents. This no longer falls within the coffee category we discuss.

How FrontStreet Coffee Brews Civet Coffee

■ Origin: Sumatra, Indonesia
■ Varieties: Timtim, Typica, Catimor
■ Processing Method: Internal fermentation

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters

Filter: KONO
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Water Temperature: 87°C
Grind Size: Coarse like sugar

Frontsteet Brewing Method

Segmented extraction
Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour with small circular motion to 125g for segmentation. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 2'00"

Civet coffee flavor description: herbal, nutty, dark chocolate, fermented.

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