What is Kopi Luwak Coffee? Is There a Difference Between Civet Coffee Beans and Palm Civet Coffee Beans?

Whenever "feces" is mentioned during a meal, people generally react with "Ew, that's disgusting." Interestingly, humans can be remarkably and consistently dualistic about certain things. When it comes to "civet coffee," the reaction goes beyond disgust—it might be "Oh?! Civet coffee? I can tell it must be expensive!"

Consequently, businessmen around the world began capitalizing on the "civet feces" concept, exploiting people's curiosity by introducing "civet coffee" to their countries and then harvesting profits for many years. In some restaurants, a cup of civet coffee can sell for over a thousand yuan. Is it expensive? There will always be people willing to pay this price to satisfy their curiosity.

Due to the intriguing name, demand for civet coffee has grown increasingly. To meet consumer desires, people began targeting the civets that produce civet coffee with cruel methods. Palm civets, relatives of civets, also couldn't escape the fate of being imprisoned to "produce feces."

From Humble Origins to Global Fame

Civet coffee was originally coffee for the poor, but it quickly gained worldwide popularity after an article published in National Geographic. In the local Indonesian language, Kopi Luwak means civet coffee, where "Kopi" means coffee and "Luwak" refers to the civet.

The Dark Side of Production

However, after rounds of commercial hype, what was originally completely worthless suddenly saw explosive demand growth. But wild civets produce coffee at such a slow rate that it completely couldn't satisfy people's desires. Many locals began capturing civets and imprisoning them, feeding them only unripe coffee cherries (civets are omnivorous) to increase civet coffee production.

Later, locals discovered that besides civets, palm civets could also produce coffee beans with similar effects after eating coffee cherries, so they began imprisoning palm civets as well. Coupled with various packaging practices and concealment, the concept of civet coffee has been distorted by many, with palm civet coffee being equated to civet coffee...

Truth vs. Commercial Exploitation

Authentic civet coffee comes from wild civets treating coffee cherries as an after-dinner dessert, so they only select fully ripe coffee cherries to eat. However, such natural production of civet coffee is extremely slow. Consequently, some people devised the method of capturing wild civets and confining them in narrow cages, feeding them only coffee cherries.

However, due to the extremely small number of wild civets, many businessmen turned to palm civets, which belong to the same Viverridae family as civets, as substitutes. It's important to note that while civets and palm civets belong to the same family, they are different species.

Ethical Concerns and Market Changes

Perhaps due to a video released by PETA showing imprisoned civets/palm civets, revealing the cruel practice of confining these feline animals in cages for so-called "wild civet coffee" production, people began to pay attention, and many started boycotting civet coffee.

Alternatively, it might be because scientists indicated that civet family animals are one of the hosts of the novel coronavirus, causing widespread panic. The East India Company (not the one established in 1600, but a coffee trading company founded by a coffee merchant in 1987 that applied for the original East India Company's coat of arms as a trademark in 1990), which had been trading civet coffee for many years, recently announced they would no longer sell civet coffee and removed it from their shelves. However, most reasons are related to decreased consumer spending power after the pandemic and increased attention to wildlife protection.

Due to monotonous diets, narrow living environments, and even coexistence with their own feces in the same space, these small feline animals developed various mental health issues, even beginning to bite their own tails, with open wounds left untreated. Local staff have admitted that these feline animals have mental health problems and that the wounds were self-inflicted. Others have admitted that so-called "wild sources" are merely wild-raised animals, and civet coffee beans truly collected in the wild are actually extremely rare.

Quality Considerations

Does civet coffee taste good? Forcing viverrids to eat unripe coffee cherries, combined with these animals living in the lower altitude forests of Indonesia...

Low-altitude coffee cultivation plus processing while unripe—it's hard to believe it tastes good.

Image source: Internet

Video source: PETA UK's YouTube channel

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