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Because the Asian palm civet's intestinal secretions carry a special fragrance, and once the coffee beans enter its stomach the proteins are slowly digested into short peptides and more free amino acids, the beans' bitterness is significantly reduced. The whole process transforms the beans' aroma into something smooth and rounded on the palate.

This is kopi luwak.

Kopi luwak—is this "dropped, not picked" coffee really worth that much money? Tony Wild was the first person to bring kopi luwak into public view, and now he is calling on everyone to boycott the luxury product together.

Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is often called the most expensive coffee in the world.

1. The Accidental Rise of Kopi Luwak

Over the past 20 years, kopi luwak has been billed as the "ultimate coffee," treasured by vendors worldwide for its taste and rarity, and it has appeared on CNN, The Oprah Show, and in Hollywood movies.

I first read about kopi luwak in a 1981 issue of National Geographic. Ten years later, in 1991, as Coffee Director for Taylors of Harrogate in Britain, I became the first to introduce kopi luwak to the Western world. I bought just one kilogram, did not sell it through the company, and thought the novelty might interest the local newspapers and radio stations in Yorkshire, where we were based—which seems naive in hindsight. The result far exceeded my expectations: newspapers, television, and radio all covered it extensively, and from then on kopi luwak entered the public consciousness.

Palm civets roam Indonesian coffee plantations, and kopi luwak comes from their droppings.

2. Real Kopi Luwak Is Not a Commercially Viable Crop, Just an Interesting Coffee Curiosity

Genuine Indonesian kopi luwak is collected from the droppings of the wild palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The palm civet is a shy, solitary nocturnal animal that visits coffee plantations during harvest season, eating ripe cherries under cover of night. It cannot digest the seeds—the coffee beans—and excretes them. These beans, having passed through the civet's digestive tract and anal glands (used for territory marking), are collected by farm workers, cleaned, and develop a unique, widely acclaimed flavor. Because wild palm civets were scarce and their droppings hard to gather, and the quality of beans collected at different times varied, kopi luwak was never a commercially viable crop—just an interesting coffee curiosity. That is exactly why I bought it.

How a cup of kopi luwak is made: palm civets eat coffee cherries and excrete the undigested seeds; the beans are cleaned and dried, becoming the so-called invaluable kopi luwak.

3. The Origin Story Has Been Exploited as a Gimmick, and Most Kopi Luwak Now Comes from Caged Civets

Today, truly wild-origin kopi luwak is nearly impossible to find. Most now comes from caged palm civets, generally kept in poor conditions. A Japanese scientist recently claimed to have invented a method to distinguish real from fake kopi luwak—but it would be better if he could invent one to tell whether the beans came from wild or caged animals.

Many coffee companies worldwide still use the wild-civet story as a gimmick to sell kopi luwak. Many claim they can collect only 500 kilograms a year, using that scarcity to justify steep prices (kopi luwak typically sells for $200-400 per kilogram, sometimes more). In reality, while exact figures are unavailable, I estimate global annual production at no less than 50 tons—possibly far more. Farmers in India, Vietnam, China, and the Philippines have now joined the production ranks as well.

One Indonesian farm claims that with 240 caged palm civets it can produce 7,000 kilograms of kopi luwak annually.

4. Kopi Luwak Has Become an Industrial Product, with Palm Civets Treated Cruelly

Indonesian kopi luwak today is essentially an industrially produced commodity; authentic wild origin is nearly impossible. Sounds unpleasant? It is. These shy, solitary creatures are crowded into cages with their own kind, causing immense stress. An unnatural diet focused almost entirely on coffee cherries leads to further health problems. Caged civets begin fighting, even gnawing off their own legs. Their droppings turn bloody, and death is common.

In Indonesia, trapping wild palm civets should be strictly controlled, but poachers capture them, cage them, and force-feed them coffee cherries to produce more bean-laden droppings—all for enormous profits and to satisfy certain people's vanity.

The kopi luwak business has succeeded spectacularly among extravagant consumers. If you are wondering what birthday gift to prepare for a wealthy friend, how about spending 6,500 pounds at Harrods, Britain's most famous department store, for kopi luwak wrapped in 24K gold foil? What you are buying is no longer kopi luwak—just like the now-fashionable Thai elephant-dung coffee and Brazilian bird-dung coffee, these products exist only to feed a hunger for bizarre, superficial status.

A caged palm civet at a farm in Surabaya, Indonesia.

5. Kopi Luwak Should Not Come at the Expense of Wildlife—It Is Time to Stop Artificially Farmed Production

My single casual purchase back then led to all this. When I introduced kopi luwak to Britain, it was a quirky little story; now it is overpriced and over-industrialized, a hypocritical veil over distorted tastes and meaningless vanity. Please think about it: satisfying our own appetites should not come at the expense of wildlife. This cannot continue—it is time to stop it.

What to Drink Instead

If what draws you to kopi luwak is Indonesia itself, there is a better way to taste it: FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian single origins offer the country's genuine character without any ethical cost, at a fair price for outstanding quality.

FrontStreet Coffee is a Guangzhou-based roastery with a small shop but a remarkably diverse bean selection, carrying both famous and lesser-known origins, with online shop service available.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a taste of authentic Sumatra, choose the FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling from the Aceh highlands near Lake Tawar. PWN buys only premium Mandheling lots and sorts them once by machine and repeatedly by hand, producing beans that are even, plump, and translucent with a low defect rate and less of the mud and grassy edge. Roasted medium-dark, it shows sandalwood, herb, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate aromas with a clean, mellow, layered body—every bit as exotic as kopi luwak's legend, and honestly come by.

The traditional wet-hulled process is what makes Sumatran coffee unique: because rain overlaps with harvest, growers pulp the cherries, dry them briefly, then strip the parchment while the beans are still half-dry, exposing them to the air—and to the local microorganisms that create Mandheling's signature wild, earthy character. For espresso and milk drinks, the FrontStreet Classic Blend adds Mandheling to Brazilian cream-and-nut sweetness with a touch of Robusta for extra body, a far more rewarding way to explore Indonesian coffee.