How Much Does Kopi Luwak Cost? How is Kopi Luwak Made? How to Brew Kopi Luwak

The World of Luwak Coffee: From Forest to Cup

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In Indonesia, the most famous coffee is probably Luwak coffee—what we commonly call "cat poop coffee." Whether or not you drink coffee, you have likely heard of it.

Luwak coffee is made when civets eat ripe coffee cherries and pass them through their digestive system; the beans are then collected after being excreted and processed. Because fermentation takes place in the animal's stomach, the resulting coffee has a distinctive flavor profile.

Today Luwak coffee has become a sought-after commodity on the international market, one of the golden varieties of coffee.

Unfortunately, profit-driven businesses are no longer satisfied with the sporadic yields found in the jungle. To raise production, they have begun keeping civets in captivity and feeding them nothing but coffee cherries.

What Is Luwak Coffee?

Luwak coffee is also known as civet coffee (in English: civet coffee; in Indonesian: Kopi Luwak; in Filipino: kape motit, kape alamid, kape melo, kape musang). In Indonesian, "kopi" means coffee and "luwak" means civet. The natural range and the captive farms for Luwak coffee are concentrated on islands such as Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Sulawesi in Indonesia, as well as in the Philippines and a few other places. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, at $400 per kilogram.

Luwak coffee is produced from the feces of the Asian palm civet, a type of civet—hence the name "cat poop coffee." This animal feeds mainly on coffee beans. After fermentation in the palm civet's stomach, proteins are broken down into short peptides and more free amino acids, which reduces the coffee's bitterness. The excreted feces become the raw material. Because coffee beans cannot be digested, they pass through intact and, after cleaning and roasting, become Luwak coffee.

Taste Profile and Production Concerns

Coffee critic Chris Rubin says: "The aroma is so rich and strong, and the coffee is incredibly rich, almost like syrup. Its thickness and chocolate texture linger on the tongue for a long time, with a pure aftertaste." Palm civets are omnivores. Besides seeds, they eat insects, snakes, birds, amphibians, and reptiles, so the feces of truly wild palm civets are mixed with many other substances.

Local Indonesian farmers capture palm civets for captivity and feed them coffee beans for production. Even so, there are still differences between farmed and wild sources. Luwak coffee production is very limited, which makes it especially expensive, and the places that sell it are even rarer. Even in its home country of Indonesia it is not commonly found. As a result, most Luwak coffee sold on the market comes from farmed civets, and its flavor naturally differs from the most original, natural wild Luwak coffee.

The Historical Discovery

In the 18th century, the Dutch established coffee plantations in their colonies of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. Locals happened to notice that a unique small animal native to the area—the civet—loved to eat coffee beans, and only the ripe ones. Strangely, what went in as coffee beans came out as coffee beans.

Curious people took the beans from the civet's droppings and brewed them, and discovered to their surprise that the taste was especially aromatic and mellow. Thus "Luwak coffee" was born.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations for Luwak Coffee

V60 / 1:15 / 90°C / 1 minute 50 seconds

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the syrupy, low-acid character of Luwak coffee appeals to you but the price and welfare concerns do not, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Mandheling line is the natural alternative. The FrontStreet Indonesia Wet-Hulled Mandheling comes from the Toba Lake area of the Lintong region and is wet-hulled, the process that gives Sumatran coffee its hallmark herbal and spice notes. Medium-dark roasted, it is low in acidity and full in body, with caramel, dark chocolate, and toasted bread aromas and a long, sweet finish—made for anyone who likes a strong cup.

For the top of the range, the FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is graded through three rounds of hand sorting and one machine sort, leaving beans complete, even, and translucent, with far less of Mandheling's muddy, grassy edge. In the cup it shows sandalwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel, and dark chocolate, clean and rich. If you also enjoy Mandheling in an espresso, the FrontStreet Classic Blend adds a small proportion of Robusta and a deep roast to bring out black chocolate, nut, and caramel notes with a golden crema—easy enough for a beginner to make an authentic Mandheling-style cup.