The Origin of Civet Coffee_How to Brew Cat Dropping Coffee Beans_Are Indonesian Male Civet Coffee Beans Expensive

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more information on coffee beans, read on.

The Origin of Civet Coffee, or Kopi Luwak

Civet coffee comes from the civet cat, an animal that naturally picks out the ripest, sweetest fruit. It eats ripe red coffee cherries whole, pulp and bean alike. Enzymes in the civet's digestive tract work on the beans and break down proteins, which reduces the coffee's bitterness. The hard coffee seeds cannot be digested, so they are excreted after a unique fermentation. The beans come out still wrapped in parchment, and after washing, drying, and roasting they become civet coffee. Traditionally, coffee cherries go through washed or natural processing to strip away the skin, pulp, and parchment and finally free the bean; Kopi Luwak instead relies on fermentation inside the animal to separate the bean, which is what creates its special flavor.

Indonesians discovered that beans fermented through the civet's digestive system are unusually rich and aromatic. They began collecting civet droppings, picking out the coffee beans, and brewing them. Because production is so scarce, the price stays extremely high, making civet coffee the most prestigious coffee in the world, and the civet's droppings the most expensive feces on earth.

Experts who have tasted Kopi Luwak give sharply divided verdicts. Some call it an extraordinary coffee of the highest quality, thick and hard to describe: somewhat earthy, with a slightly pungent edge and organ-meat notes that linger in the mouth to the last drop. Others say it is hard to swallow and not worth the money for what they consider stinky coffee.

Generally speaking, Indonesian coffee carries earthy and traditional-medicine flavors, with a body thickness among the highest of any continent. Kopi Luwak's earthiness and body are even stronger, its thickness approaching syrup, with a very particular aroma. If you never liked Indonesian coffee to begin with, you will certainly dislike Kopi Luwak even more. If you enjoy the earthy flavors of aged Indonesian beans or Indian monsooned coffee, you might fall in love with Kopi Luwak for the same reason.

The Indonesian civet has a gland near its genitals that secretes a milky white oil, long a precious raw material in the perfume industry. Even in William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, King Lear, there is a line: "Give me some civet oil to stimulate my inspiration." Too much of the substance, however, can have a pungent smell, and civets sometimes spray this oil to defend themselves.

Being a curious sort, I took out several Kopi Luwak coffee beans to study them. They looked like a medium roast, with a subtle, hidden coffee-fruit aroma. The black coffee showed a black-gold luster, not much different from ordinary beans. Surprise!

Usually I grind a week's worth of beans at home and carry five days' worth to the office. This week I started drinking this bag of civet coffee...

I put some civet coffee beans into the grinder...

The ground civet coffee powder gave off waves of charming, rich coffee-fruit aroma. Wonderful...

The beautiful tasting moment began. I put the civet coffee powder into the coffee machine and pressed for one serving...

The charming coffee aroma filled the whole house. The civet coffee brought great joy to me, a coffee lover...

I had always been rather dismissive of civet coffee, these beans fished out of cat feces. Cheeky.

But after one sip of civet coffee, I fell silent.

Civet coffee has a very special coffee aroma. Within the rich fragrance there is absolutely no coffee bitterness, and it carries a faint chocolate-like coffee-fruit aroma. It is very smooth to drink and genuinely enjoyable...

The next day was Sunday, which happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival. Enjoying a happy tea time at home, I brewed a cup of civet coffee and ate a piece of Kee Wah mooncake the company had given out. The coffee's fruit aroma balanced the sweet mooncake. It was indescribably lovely...

Now I finally understand why people are so passionate about civet coffee...

Civet Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted wild civet coffee beans offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, the value is outstanding: a 100-gram package costs only around 250, and at 15 grams per single-origin serving, one package makes 6 cups, or about 40-50 a cup. Beside coffee shops that often charge over 100 yuan a cup, that is exceptional value.

FrontStreet Coffee is a roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but a remarkably varied lineup of beans, carrying both famous and lesser-known origins, and it also offers online store services.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Indonesia's finest growing regions sit on three islands, Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, and each has produced a signature style: FrontStreet's Mandheling from Sumatra, moderate in acidity with a deep, heavy aroma; Java coffee from the island of Java, an Arabica; and Sulawesi coffee, plump and intensely aromatic, though about 90% of that island's output is Robusta.

If you want to taste the wilder side of Indonesian coffee, FrontStreet's Indonesian wet-hulled Mandheling is the obvious pick. Mandheling means Arabica from Sumatra, processed mainly by the local wet-hulled method, in which the parchment is removed while the beans are still half dry and half wet, leaving the green coffee exposed to the air and giving it a classic grassy, spicy character. FrontStreet's Mandheling comes from the Lintong area around Lake Toba and is roasted medium-dark to deliver the classic profile: low acidity, full body, and rich caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread notes with a long, sweet finish. For the very top of the range, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is screened by PWN to exacting standards, sorted first by machine and then by hand, leaving uniform, large, translucent beans with far less earthiness and a clean, sweet, layered cup showing sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate.