How Kopi Luwak is Made - Flavor Characteristics, Stories, and Brewing Tutorial

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Introduction to Kopi Luwak

When it comes to Kopi Luwak, it has always been a controversial topic. FrontStreet Coffee also offers Kopi Luwak, but! FrontStreet Coffee believes that there is nothing wrong with the natural formation of Kopi Luwak itself. The problem lies with those people who cage civets and force them to eat only coffee berries, whether ripe or unripe, just to increase the production of Kopi Luwak. This has led to cruel practices that no longer fall within the scope of coffee we discuss. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explore Kopi Luwak.

What is Kopi Luwak?

Kopi Luwak (also known as civet coffee), is already a household name in the coffee world. Everyone knows that the world's most expensive coffee is "Kopi Luwak," which is also the coffee with the lowest production. Its annual output is limited because the coffee beans undergo fermentation inside the civet's digestive system, resulting in a special herbal aroma and excellent body. As a result, Kopi Luwak has become a favorite among the wealthy, and its price is extremely high. Although expensive, the quality of the coffee bean variety is generally average.

Civets mainly inhabit tropical rainforests and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest edges in hilly and mountainous areas below 2100 meters altitude, choosing rock caves, soil holes, or tree holes as their habitats. The coffee bean varieties are predominantly Robusta, because civets operate in low to medium altitude areas, so most coffee varieties are Robusta. High-altitude Arabica Kopi Luwak is rare.

What Does Kopi Luwak Taste Like?

Civets have an omnivorous diet. Their animal-based food includes small mammals, birds, etc., while plant-based food includes stems and leaves of Solanaceae plants, seeds of various figs, and fruits like trash berries and ground cherries. However, civets have poor digestive ability for plants, so eating berries is equivalent to their after-dinner dessert, while their main food is meat. Because they digest plants poorly and mainly live in the broad-leaved forests, shrublands, and agricultural areas of South Asia and Southeast Asia, these areas are also suitable for coffee tree growth. Therefore, many of the ground cherries that civets eat are actually coffee cherries. Civets can only digest the skin and pulp of the berries, while the seeds inside—the coffee beans—are eventually excreted. Due to the civet's habitat in Indonesia's low-altitude regions and the coffee variety being the low-quality Robusta bean, Kopi Luwak has the earthy and herbal flavors characteristic of Robusta beans. Combined with the special processing method, the coffee has high viscosity, drinking like molasses with a thick, solid body.

The Special Processing Method of Kopi Luwak - In-Body Fermentation

Early on, local people would collect wild civet droppings in the forest, extract the undigested coffee seeds, and process them into raw beans. Due to the limited production and unique in-body fermentation method, many businessmen later targeted the business opportunity and began to capture civets extensively for cage farming. The originally carnivorous civets could only eat coffee cherries. However, the nutritional content in coffee cherries cannot maintain the health of civets.

They believe that although coffee beans are not digested in the civet's digestive tract, the highly corrosive digestive juices have corroded their surface. These digestive juices 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 reality, because they only eat coffee cherries for long periods, civets excrete coffee beans possibly within one or two hours after consumption. Coffee beans staying in the civet's stomach for only one or two hours is 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's Neutral View on Kopi Luwak

FrontStreet Coffee believes that there is nothing wrong with the natural formation of Kopi Luwak. Civets use their noses to identify ripe coffee cherries, and Ethiopia's red cherries are also harvested from fully mature coffee—both methods achieve similar results. The problem lies with those people who cage civets, forcing them to eat only coffee cherries, whether ripe or unripe, just to increase Kopi Luwak production. This has led to cruel practices that no longer fall within the scope of coffee we discuss.

Imagine if it were true that passing through the digestive tract makes coffee taste better, then feeding them a large amount of coffee beans, regardless of ripeness, would also produce good coffee. This explains why there are so many artificially farmed Vietnamese, Yunnan, and Indonesian Kopi Luwak. FrontStreet Coffee believes that only coffee beans from ripe coffee cherries will taste good. Therefore, even if Kopi Luwak production continues, it should only be done by establishing a large activity area where civets can choose the coffee cherries they think are suitable to eat, while also having other nutrient-rich food sources available to them.

Can Kopi Luwak's In-Body Processing Method Be Replaced by Technology?

The excessive pursuit of this type of coffee and its extremely high price may result in wild animals being forcibly imprisoned and forced to produce coffee beans. It's unnecessary to persecute wild animals for the sake of taste.

According to online reports, with the development of microbial technology, people are also trying to use more environmentally friendly methods to ferment raw coffee beans. For example, some people are dedicated to developing modern technology and microbial techniques to simulate the civet's gastrointestinal system to process coffee cherries. If successful, this simulated Kopi Luwak would neither threaten wild animals nor produce high-quality coffee.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Brew Kopi Luwak?

To better express the herbal flavors and rich body of Kopi Luwak, FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roast for Kopi Luwak beans. Medium-dark roasted beans generally have higher moisture loss rates, so they weigh less. During brewing, the powder doesn't completely sink to the bottom—it gets absorbed immediately when water is first poured. Due to vigorous degassing, bubbles form around the grounds, creating channels. These channels persist longer with fresher beans, causing the water level to drop quickly. I generally use a coarse water flow and slowly circle around. FrontStreet Coffee uses a KONO dripper for brewing because it produces a more rounded, full-bodied texture and more direct flavor expression.

Brewing Parameters

Water temperature: 86-87°C | Grind size: White sugar | Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 (15g coffee to 225ml water)

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction: Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. When pouring with a small water stream to 125g, make a segment division. Continue pouring to 225g when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again (timing starts from the bloom). Extraction time: 2'00"

Kopi Luwak Flavor Description

Herbal, nuts, dark chocolate, fermented flavor.

Important Notice :

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