Authentic Indonesian Kopi Luwak Bean Prices_Taste and Flavor of Indonesian Civet Coffee Beans

Indonesian Civet Coffee beans can be considered the "Rolls-Royce" of the specialty coffee market. FrontStreet Coffee's store also has Civet Coffee beans on its coffee bean menu. As early as 2002 in New York, a pound of Civet Coffee beans was priced at a staggering $500. Although the name "Civet Coffee" may not sound elegant, it's undeniable that its flavor conceals the unique herbal aroma of Indonesia's coffee-producing regions, with an exceptionally rich body.

If you were to ask me, "Why are Civet Coffee beans so expensive?" The real reason is their extremely low production volume. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share with you the characteristics and story of this coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Story

The Indonesian Civet Coffee beans introduced by FrontStreet Coffee are pure Arabica varieties. Local farmers collect the droppings, clean them, and then sort them by variety.

In the 17th century, Dutch colonists first introduced coffee seedlings to Indonesia. The unique geographical environment and mild climate of the Sumatra archipelago nurtured high-quality coffee beans. However, a local species of wild civet loved to eat mature, full coffee cherries. During harvest season, coffee plantations often suffered from their theft, causing great headaches for coffee farmers who were already heavily taxed. As a result, they drove away and captured these animals in large numbers.

Until one day, Captain Willemsen, while leading his team on patrol past a farmhouse as usual, smelled a rich coffee aroma from afar. He rushed into the farmer's courtyard and saw the farmer roasting coffee beans in an iron pan. Willemsen, who was worried about being blamed by his superiors for not harvesting enough coffee beans, was furious. Just as he was about to explode, he was attracted by a cup of black coffee handed to him by the farmer.

Upon his first sip, Willemsen felt incredible smoothness and richness, a never-before-experienced sweet fragrance instantly hitting his taste buds! When he saw the raw beans the farmer showed him, he was even more stunned: they were actually droppings excreted by wild civets! It turned out that local farmers couldn't afford to drink the coffee harvested from the plantations. Seeing many coffee beans that the civets had eaten but couldn't digest on the ground, they felt it was a waste, so they collected them, cleaned them, and enjoyed them themselves, calling it "Civet Coffee."

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Processing Method

First, it's important to know that Indonesian Civet Coffee beans are produced in the Sumatra archipelago of Indonesia and have continued their legend through their rarity and uniqueness.

Sumatra Island is rich in Arabica coffee beans, and the island's civets love to eat mature, full coffee cherries. After fermentation in the civet's digestive system, the coffee cherries undergo magical changes, developing a mellow, unique flavor with a lasting aftertaste and rich, layered smoothness. The unique production process and scarce yield have created the exceptional and precious Civet Coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee · Introduction to Civet Internal Fermentation Method

Civet internal fermentation utilizes the lactic acid bacteria and digestive fluids from the civet's digestive tract to remove the fruit pulp and pectin attached to the surface of the original beans. The original beans are finally excreted with feces, and then coffee farmers go up the mountains at dawn to collect the civet droppings, cleaning them to obtain precious internally fermented beans one by one.

Civets mainly inhabit tropical rainforests and subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest edge shrublands and grasslands in hills and mountains below 2100 meters altitude, choosing rock caves, soil holes, or tree holes as their habitat sites.

Civets have a relatively omnivorous diet. Animal-based foods include small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, crustaceans, and insects such as rodents, small birds, snakes, frogs, fish, crabs, bird eggs, insects, earthworms, and wild fowl. Plant-based foods include stems and leaves of Solanaceae plants, seeds of various figs, and fruits like bignay and nightshade.

However, civets have poor digestive ability for plants, so eating berries is essentially their dessert, while their main food is meat. In their most natural environment, eating their most suitable food, eating the coffee cherries they selected themselves—ripe fruits with high sugar content—and then excreting the coffee beans they couldn't digest is animal nature and a very natural occurrence.

Early on, local people collected wild civet droppings from the forests, extracted the undigested coffee seeds, and processed them into raw beans. Due to the low yield and unique internal fermentation method, many businessmen later spotted the business opportunity and began to capture civets in large numbers for caged farming. The originally carnivorous civets could only eat coffee cherries.

However, the nutritional components in coffee cherries cannot keep civets healthy. But they believe that although coffee beans are not digested in the civet's digestive tract, the highly corrosive digestive fluids have corroded their surface. These digestive fluids 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 fact, because they only consume coffee cherries for long periods, civets excrete coffee beans perhaps just one or two hours after consumption. Coffee beans remaining in the civet's stomach for only one or two hours are insufficient to produce the series of changes mentioned above. The beans are still the same as when they were eaten, and even if there are flavor changes, they are minimal.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that there is no problem with the natural formation of Civet Coffee itself. Civets use their noses to identify mature coffee cherries, and Ethiopian red cherry coffee is also harvested from fully mature coffee—both share the same principle. The problem lies with the people who cage the civets.

They force them to eat only coffee cherries, regardless of whether they are ripe or unripe, just to increase the production of Civet Coffee, leading to these cruel practices, which no longer belong to the category of coffee we discuss.

The Indonesian Civet Coffee beans introduced by FrontStreet Coffee are pure Arabica varieties. Local farmers collect the droppings, clean them, and then sort them by variety. The flavor and body of Arabica coffee are both higher than those of Robusta coffee beans.

Because Indonesian Civet Coffee beans undergo internal animal fermentation, they possess a special herbal aroma and excellent body, making Indonesian Civet Coffee beans a favorite among the wealthy. It must be said that its price is very expensive, but an expensive price does not necessarily mean the bean quality is excellent.

FrontStreet Coffee would also like to share with you an additional piece of knowledge: internally fermented coffee beans are not limited to Civet Coffee. There are also South American Wattled Jacu coffee, Indian monkey coffee, and Sri Lankan elephant coffee—all are internally fermented by animals!

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans

Origin: Indonesia, Sumatra

Variety: Timtim, Typica, Catimor

Processing Method: Internal Fermentation

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Brewing Experience

FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesian Civet Coffee beans are medium-dark roasted, and the brewed coffee has a smooth mouthfeel. To highlight the herbal and nutty flavors of Civet Coffee beans, Frontsteet uses a KONO dripper in the following brewing process.

The KONO dripper can bring out a more rounded, rich body with more direct flavor expression. However, the KONO dripper has relatively poor exhaust effect because its ribs are straight and only extend one-quarter of the dripper's depth. Above this one-quarter position, the surface forms a sealed state tightly against the cup wall.

The reason Frontsteet chooses the KONO dripper for brewing medium-dark roasted Civet Coffee beans is that the KONO dripper's only exhaust area is in those one-quarter ribs. When the water level rises above the rib area, the water volume in the dripper continuously increases, creating pressure through the weight of the water. Since the outlet is relatively small, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water. As the water flow carries substances, this can more effectively extract soluble components, achieving the high body effect we expect.

FrontStreet Coffee hopes to better express the herbal flavor and rich body of Indonesian Civet Coffee beans, so during roasting, Frontsteet has made this Indonesian Civet Coffee beans medium-dark roasted.

Medium-dark roasted coffee beans generally have a higher weight loss ratio, making the beans lighter. During brewing, the coffee grounds will not completely sink to the bottom, so they will be absorbed immediately when water is first poured. Due to vigorous degassing, bubbles form around the coffee grounds, creating channels. These channels last longer with fresher beans, causing the water level to drop more quickly. Therefore, Frontsteet generally uses a coarse water flow and slow circular pouring when brewing medium-dark roasted Indonesian Civet Coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Brewing Method

Brewing Parameters:

Water Temperature: 86-87°C

Grind Size: Medium-coarse grind (68% retention on China #20 standard sieve)

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. When adding water in a small circular motion to 125g, perform segmentation. Continue pouring to 225g when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed. Stop pouring, and when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from the bloom). Extraction time: 2'00".

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Flavor Description

Herbal, nutty, dark chocolate, smooth mouthfeel, rich body.

FrontStreet Coffee · Indonesian Civet Coffee beans Extended Reading

FrontStreet Coffee believes that there is no problem with the natural formation of Indonesian Civet Coffee beans itself. Civets use their noses to identify mature coffee cherries, and Ethiopian red cherry coffee beans are also harvested from fully mature coffee—both share the same principle.

However, the origin of Indonesian Civet Coffee beans has been exploited as a gimmick. Today, most civets are kept in cages. Those who cage civets force them to eat coffee cherries regardless of whether they are ripe or unripe, just to increase the production of Civet Coffee beans, leading to those cruel practices. These no longer belong to the category of coffee we discuss.

This extremely expensive coffee has nothing to do with the climate and altitude where it grows, nor with the genetic makeup of its coffee tree species, but rather comes from its special processing method. Civets eat coffee cherries, which ferment in the civet's digestive system and are then excreted with feces.

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