"Kopi Luwak," Is It Really Cat Droppings?

What Makes Kopi Luwak So Expensive?

Most people have heard of "Kopi Luwak" – this coffee with such an unappealing name actually commands prices comparable to red-label coffee! This naturally sparks intense curiosity about its taste experience. Today, let's briefly discuss what makes this coffee, known as the "gold of the coffee world," so expensive!

Note: Rest assured, you don't need to find a special time or place to read this article. Although it sounds rather unappetizing, don't worry – the scenes you're imagining won't appear (probably), so feel free to read on boldly!

Is Kopi Luwak Really Cat Poop?

Technically, yes and no! While it is indeed made from cat excrement, the "cat" referred to here is the palm civet that lives in tropical rainforests, not the pampered pet cats in cities. So, all you cat owners, please keep your hands away from your own cats!

The palm civet (also known as the large Indian civet, civet cat, or masked palm civet) is an omnivorous wild animal native to Indonesia. It eats everything, including coffee cherries! They swallow whole coffee cherries, digest the skin and pulp in their stomachs, and then excrete the denser, harder-to-digest raw coffee beans. And these excretions – yes, they are the raw material for "Kopi Luwak."

The Birth of Kopi Luwak

In the 17th century, the Dutch discovered the huge business potential of coffee and immediately set off for Indonesia to start coffee cultivation. Their first stop was Java Island. Due to Java's suitable climate for coffee plants, the Dutch made a fortune from abundant coffee harvests years later. Having tasted success, the Dutch quickly spread coffee cultivation from Java to other islands.

Indonesian laborers were responsible for coffee cultivation – local coffee planting and processing were all handled by them, but frequent exposure naturally sparked curiosity to experience it themselves. So, Indonesian laborers wanted to taste what the coffee they grew actually tasted like. However, this coffee was an important commodity destined for Europe, so the Dutch strictly prohibited them from picking and drinking it privately.

Although the Dutch could prohibit Indonesian laborers from picking coffee beans, they couldn't stop wild animals that couldn't communicate! Ripe coffee cherries attracted large numbers of wild palm civets, which would climb trees to eat the ripe red cherries, leaving behind unripe green ones, which angered the Dutch greatly. So, the work of Indonesian laborers increased! Besides being responsible for coffee cultivation, they also had to drive away these wild palm civets!

Then, an Indonesian laborer followed palm civet tracks and discovered several pieces of wild feces mixed with raw coffee beans near tree roots. This was perfect – the impulse to try coffee that had been suppressed for years made him reach out for these coffee bean-mixed "objects"! He took these excretions home, cleaned them, extracted the coffee beans inside, and immediately took to a pan to "stir-fry" these beans over high heat, grind them, and brewed the world's first cup of "specially" processed coffee. The experience was quite good, so the Indonesian laborer spread the story of Kopi Luwak locally. Then, as it continued to spread, Kopi Luwak traveled from Indonesia to other countries!

People initially treated this unappealing product as a curiosity, but with increasing reports, Kopi Luwak quickly became famous! People completely changed their attitudes, scrambling to taste the deliciousness of Kopi Luwak.

But the production was really too low! One jin (500g) of wild palm civet excrement can only produce 150g of Kopi Luwak raw beans, plus losses from roasting, making these already rare beans even more scarce. Scarcity drives up prices, and Kopi Luwak prices skyrocketed, reaching several times higher than even Jade Red Label at their peak. This led to the widely condemned practice of artificial captive breeding! Coffee farmers captured and caged palm civets, feeding them only coffee cherries three meals a day for mass production!

But palm civets are naturally timid and not social animals, so caging them easily leads to territorial disputes, fighting, injuries, then infections, and cross-infections. This is why people online call for boycotting Kopi Luwak!

What Does Kopi Luwak Taste Like?

At the time Kopi Luwak was discovered, Indonesia had already suffered from leaf rust disease, so Arabica varieties had long been replaced with Robusta varieties. Therefore, Kopi Luwak was already Robusta when first discovered and consumed.

Then, raw coffee beans eroded by stomach acid in the palm civet's stomach for a period of time had their proteins broken down, producing more free amino acids, making the whole cup of coffee taste richer and more mellow! But everyone should know that this is already a form of heavy fermentation processing. Not to mention whether Robusta is suitable for light roasting, just considering this heavy fermentation flavor, if light roasting were used, the resulting taste would be imaginable.

Therefore, Kopi Luwak generally uses dark roasting! Dark roasted Kopi Luwak has spice and chocolate flavors similar to Mandheling, but its body is even richer than Mandheling... ummm, so to borrow a sentence from a famous Bilibili content creator: Some coffees can exist only in stories, not necessarily something you need to spend money to try. This is better for everyone and for the animals.

Besides Kopi Luwak, many other "animal-fermented" processed coffees have emerged. For example, Brazil's "bird poop coffee," Thailand's "elephant dung coffee," and so on...

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