Cupper Launches Column to Criticize Kopi Luwak and Black Ivory Coffee: Does Black Ivory Coffee Taste Good?

Professional coffee knowledge exchange, for more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

The Truth Behind Animal Coffees: A Call to Reject Kopi Luwak and Black Ivory

Since I first became involved with coffee, I've always felt that kopi luwak (civet coffee) was nothing more than a gimmick for people who don't understand coffee but want to show off. At this year's Shanghai Coffee Expo, Patrick Tam from Hong Kong shared many similar views on coffee. From a cupper's perspective, Patrick Tam revealed the truth about these so-called "luxury coffees" like kopi luwak and elephant dung coffee. If you're also a coffee professional, please share this with more people and join us in rejecting kopi luwak and elephant dung coffee. The specialty coffee wave doesn't need these crap products!

The Cruel Reality Behind Kopi Luwak and the Hypocrisy of Ivory

Recent newspaper reports covered how a five-star hotel responded to PETA Asia-Pacific's call to stop selling kopi luwak (commonly known as civet coffee) produced through inhumane methods, once again drawing public attention to animal protection. PETA sent undercover investigators deep into farms, documenting various truths about animal cruelty. They learned from farmers that mass-producing wild kopi luwak is nearly impossible. As for the so-called "100% wild" labeling, it's just a trick: civets are captured from the wild, kept in iron cages for three years, constantly fed coffee cherries and forced to excrete coffee beans. After release, they may die from malnutrition, psychological trauma (zoochosis), or inability to adapt to nature. Most importantly, as a cupper, its taste simply doesn't meet standards.

The current consensus in the specialty coffee industry is: "Kopi luwak is inferior quality coffee."

Commercial Hype: Packaging Inferior Products as Premium

When animals eat coffee cherries, the undigested pits undergo intestinal fermentation and are excreted. Coffee beans processed this "natural" way were originally collected by farmers from mud and kept for their own "enjoyment" as low-grade product. But through deliberate packaging and beautification by media, they have now become delicacies. The reason the public falls into businessmen's traps is simply a lack of awareness of truly quality coffee.

Grassy Band-Aid Flavor and Rough Texture

Local newspapers describing this kopi luwak with terms like "fragrant" and "exquisite" only serve to embellish the legend of kopi luwak. Lilly Kubota, Communications Manager of the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), wrote back in 2011 listing three conclusions: 1. The best kopi luwak cannot compare to the lowest-scoring specialty coffee 2. The most authentic kopi luwak comes from civets trapped in cages 3. What consumers buy is mostly fake. In the same year, cupper Stephen Vicks published a cupping report on a coffee website: "Out of four samples, two had moldy and phenolic defects respectively, while the other two reminded people of grass, medicinal bandages, iodine, and raw oysters, with a rough texture." This shows consumers are paying for hype, not quality (They pay a premium for the story, not quality).

Although the industry generally accepts SCAA's views, some people still refuse to give up hope of making money from this. I know someone who obtained cupper qualifications specifically to vindicate kopi luwak. Unfortunately, the off-flavors in the samples could never escape cupping evaluation.

Elephant Dung Coffee

As pressure from animal protection groups mounted, a Canadian businessman drew inspiration from animal digestive systems and launched elephant dung coffee (later renamed Black Ivory Coffee). The production involves thirty elephants from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand. Besides grass and bananas, their daily feed includes unspecified proportions of Arabica coffee cherries.

Using elephants as processing machines is indeed clever. Their large size means they consume more food daily than civets and produce more feces. Producers emphasize that "elephants are vegetarian animals," boasting that their digestive systems are purer and that banana sugars during the long fermentation process reduce bitterness and enhance aroma. I believe that adding coffee cherries to a vegetarian animal's feed is more virtuous than forcing carnivorous civets to "convert to vegetarianism." But using these arguments to support "elephant dung being better than civet dung" is unconvincing. To produce 1 kilogram of elephant dung coffee requires 33 kilograms of coffee cherries. Many of these are crushed or lost in the grass. Workers pick coffee beans from dung piles, wash them, and remove defects. Such rare food naturally commands a high price: one pound of roasted beans costs $500. It's currently only available at a few five-star resorts in the Maldives, Abu Dhabi, and Thailand.

Faint Grassy Flavor...

The theory that "intestinal enzymes can reduce bitterness-causing proteins" doesn't withstand scientific scrutiny: there are many causes of coffee bitterness, from cultivation and processing to roasting and brewing—each step can contribute. Taking a step back, even if such "bitterness-causing proteins" existed, they would be affected by the Maillard reaction in a roaster reaching 200°C Celsius, restructuring and changing flavors repeatedly: what was bitter might decompose and sublimate, while what wasn't bitter originally could become bitter from scorching.

From web advertisements, hotel staff must be trained by bean sellers before preparing each cup of $50 elephant dung coffee: performing with high-end Lido hand grinders and 19th-century Belgian balancing syphons for an impressive presentation. While the former is indeed among the top hand grinders on today's market, using antique Belgian syphons for extraction is like using an abacus for a math exam: more spectacle than substance. Modern coffee extraction pursues quantification; elaborate displays are less crisp and efficient than a simple dripper, a scale, and a kettle of water.

The company owner places great importance on online product reviews. When someone mentions elephant dung coffee in coffee discussion forums, he always leaves comments under his real name, introducing the benefits of elephant dung coffee. Beyond the supposed selling points of "low bitterness, rarity, and humane treatment," he emphasizes that 8% of profits are donated to the elephant conservation facility responsible for producing the coffee. The benefiting foundation's director also strongly cooperates, issuing statements emphasizing that elephants' bodies are not affected by caffeine. They explain that caffeine is locked inside the bean and not absorbed by elephants. This superfluous act actually backfires: the industry knows that from leaves to fruit, the entire coffee cherry contains caffeine. Cascara (coffee cherry tea) contains caffeine, and it comes specifically from dried coffee fruit pulp. Moreover, caffeine is highly water-soluble and will inevitably leach out during digestion. One method of producing decaf coffee (Swiss water process) extracts caffeine from beans using water. The claim that it's "locked inside the bean" only highlights the businessman's ignorance.

The packaging states that "elephant dung coffee has a faint grassy flavor..." Perhaps he doesn't know that in a cupper's eyes, grassy flavor is a negative descriptor indicating improper roasting.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473