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

FrontStreet Coffee - Indonesian Civet Coffee Introduction

The world's most expensive coffee has an unlikely raw material: feces—or, more precisely, coffee beans that have been partially digested and excreted by civets after eating the cherries. This civet coffee does not come cheap, with a single cup costing as much as $80 in the United States.

Civets live in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. They have monkey-like long tails, raccoon-like facial markings and striped or spotted bodies. They play an important role in the food chain, eating not only coffee cherries and mangoes but also insects and small reptiles, while themselves falling prey to leopards, large snakes and crocodiles.

Originally, the civet coffee trade did 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. As a result, the booming civet coffee industry actually encouraged locals to protect civets in order to collect their valuable droppings. The digestive enzymes in a civet's body alter the protein structure of the coffee beans, removing some of the acidity and making the coffee smoother.

However, as civet coffee grew popular and Indonesia became a destination for wildlife encounters, more and more wild civets were caged on coffee plantations—partly for coffee production, but also to profit from civet tourism.

Civet droppings contain partially digested coffee beans, which were once collected from the wild; increasingly, though, more civets are kept on plantations, imprisoned in dirty, crowded cages. PHOTOGRAPH BY ULET IFANSASTI, GETTY IMAGES

Some civets are emaciated because they are fed nothing but coffee cherries; others are overweight because they can never move freely; and many consume excessive amounts of coffee and display abnormal behavior. What troubles Cruz most, however, is that many civets are forced to stand or lie constantly on mesh frames: "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, the Dutch established coffee plantations in the Indonesian colonies of Sumatra and Java and prohibited locals from picking or consuming the coffee they grew. Indonesian locals accidentally discovered that civets loved to eat these coffee cherries and would excrete the beans intact when they defecated.

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

Knowledge Point: Civets are omnivorous animals with pointed muzzles and dark gray fur. Their favorite food is fresh coffee cherries, 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 more people to enjoy the best coffee at the lowest possible price—that has been our mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Indonesian coffee is far more than its most famous curiosity, and FrontStreet's Sumatran beans show the region's real depth. Start with the FrontStreet Indonesia Wet-Hulled Mandheling, from the Toba Lake area of the Lintong region. Made with the local wet-hulling method—where the parchment is stripped while the bean is still half-dry, leaving the green bean exposed—it takes on the classic herbal and spice character. Roasted medium-dark to bring out the traditional Mandheling profile, it is low in acidity and full-bodied, with caramel, dark chocolate and toasted-bread aromas and a long, sweet finish. It is ideal for anyone who loves a strong cup.

For the top of the range, choose the FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling. Produced by the PWN trading house, which buys only premium Mandheling lots, it is sorted rigorously by density, size, shape and color and cleaned through machine and hand selection to ensure large, even, translucent beans with minimal mustiness. As the name suggests, the beans can gleam golden in the sun. Freshly roasted, it delivers sandalwood, herbal, spice, toasted hazelnut, caramel and dark chocolate notes in a clean, sweet, rich cup. And for the traditional espresso approach, the FrontStreet Classic Blend follows the classic Mamba recipe—a Sumatra-Brazil combination—finished with a little Robusta and roasted dark so its dark chocolate, nut and caramel aromas shine, letting even a beginner pull an authentic Mandheling-style shot.