One of the Top 10 Most Delicious Coffee Beans: Indonesian Kopi Luwak - The World's Most Expensive Coffee

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FrontStreet Coffee - Indonesian Civet Coffee Introduction

The world's most expensive coffee, with raw materials being feces—more precisely, made from coffee beans that are half-digested and excreted by civets after eating them. This civet coffee is not cheap, with a single cup costing up to $80 in the United States.

Civets inhabit Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, featuring monkey-like long tails, raccoon-like facial markings, and striped or spotted bodies. They play important roles in the food chain, consuming not only coffee fruits and mangoes but also insects and small reptiles, while themselves being preyed upon by cheetahs, large snakes, and crocodiles.

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Originally, the civet coffee trade posed little harm to these animals: the Asian palm civet (a species unique to Southeast Asia) would raid commercial plantations in Indonesia and was often considered a pest by locals. Therefore, the booming development of the civet coffee industry actually encouraged locals to protect civets to obtain their precious feces. The digestive enzymes in civets' bodies alter the protein structure in coffee beans, removing some of the acidity and making the coffee smoother.

However, as civet coffee gradually became popular and Indonesia became a tourist destination for wildlife encounters, increasing numbers of wild civets were caged in coffee plantations. This was partly for coffee production but also to profit from civet tourism.

Civet feces contain half-digested coffee beans, which were previously collected from the wild, but increasingly more civets are being kept in coffee plantations, imprisoned in dirty and crowded cages. PHOTOGRAPH BY ULET IFANSASTI, GETTY IMAGES

Some civets are emaciated because they are only fed coffee fruits; others are overweight because they can never move freely; and even more civets consume excessive amounts of coffee and exhibit abnormal behavior. However, what troubles Cruz most is that many civets are forced to constantly stand or lie on mesh frames above: "If they have to stand on such mesh frames all day, it will definitely cause pain and skin damage. They cannot escape from this flooring, enduring long-term suffering and discomfort."

Civet coffee is produced in Indonesia. In the early 18th century, Dutch people established coffee plantations in the Indonesian colonies of Sumatra and Java, and prohibited locals from picking and consuming the coffee fruits they grew. Indonesian locals accidentally discovered that civets love to eat these coffee fruits and would excrete the beans intact when defecating.

Civets only select the ripest and sweetest coffee beans to eat, which itself is a form of natural selection. Secondly, locals found that these beans, after fermentation in the cats' stomachs, produced coffee that tasted better than ordinary coffee. The fragrant and delicious civet coffee gradually gained widespread fame, becoming a sought-after product in the international market.

Knowledge Point: Civets are omnivorous animals with pointed mouths and dark gray fur. Their favorite food is fresh coffee beans, which become cat feces after fermentation and digestion in their bodies.

In summary: FrontStreet Coffee is a research-focused coffee establishment that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation to help more friends fall in love with coffee, and we hold three discounted coffee events every month. This is because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price, which has been our mission for the past 6 years!

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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