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Expensive Civet Coffee: 6 Creative Uses of Animal Feces

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Use #1: Premium Beverages - Example: Civet Coffee. Also known as Kopi Luwak, civet coffee is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Prices range from $300 to $800 per pound, primarily produced in Indonesia and other regions. In Hong Kong, a cup of civet coffee typically costs two to three hundred dollars and is only available at one or two of the most luxurious hotels. Civet coffee has become the new favorite among coffee enthusiasts, compared to traditional

Creative Use 1: Premium Beverages

Example: Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. The price per 500 grams ranges from $300 to $800, and it is mainly produced in Indonesia and other regions. In Hong Kong, a cup of Kopi Luwak can cost two to three hundred dollars, and it is only available in one or two of the most luxurious hotels. Kopi Luwak has become the "new darling" of coffee, attracting coffee enthusiasts even more than traditional top-grade Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. This coffee is actually extracted from the feces of a tree-dwelling wild animal commonly known as the "civet cat" in Indonesia, then roasted.

Civets prefer to select the most mature, sweet, plump, and juicy coffee fruits from coffee trees as food. After passing through their digestive system, the outer pulp of the coffee fruit is digested, while the incredibly hard raw coffee beans are expelled from the civet's digestive system completely unchanged. Through this digestive process, the coffee beans undergo unparalleled magical changes—as the proteins that produce bitterness in the coffee beans are digested, Kopi Luwak loses much of its bitterness and gains a mellow, smooth, and rich taste.

Early Indonesian farmers viewed civets, which specialized in stealing ripe coffee fruits, as mortal enemies. However, it is unknown which "first to eat crabs" pioneer had the ingenious idea to select coffee beans from civet feces to make coffee. After processing and roasting, the resulting coffee received endless praise from both the public and experts.

Creative Use 2: Precious Spices

Example: Ambergris

Ambergris is a spice containing 25% ambrein. When added to perfume, it forms a film on the skin that allows the fragrance to persist for a long time. Historically, it was mainly used as a fixative in perfumes. It has both a fresh, gentle animalic scent and special sweet notes with earthy and mossy undertones. Its main components include ambrein, benzoic acid, and beta-ionone. It is also a valuable traditional Chinese medicine with effects of resolving phlegm, dispersing nodules, promoting qi circulation, and activating blood.

Ambergris is also the most mysterious spice. Initially, people only occasionally found it washed up on beaches. Due to its rarity and difficulty to obtain, ambergris is also known as "grey gold" and "liquid gold." At first, people thought it was saliva shed by "dragons" in the sea while sleeping, hence its name. Scientific research later revealed that it actually comes from a huge marine creature—the sperm whale.

Sperm whales can dive to depths of thousands of meters to feed on large marine creatures such as squid and octopus. After swallowing their food, sperm whales find it difficult to digest the hard, sharp horny beaks and cartilage in their bodies. The sperm whale's digestive system suffers from the cutting and grinding of these hard objects, so it can only produce special secretions to wrap around the sharp objects to relieve wound pain. Periodically, these secretion masses are expelled with feces and eventually float on the sea surface, becoming ambergris.

Freshly excreted ambergris actually has no fragrance and even carries the pungent and unbearable fishy odor of feces. However, after being caressed by ocean waves, exposed to sunlight, and catalyzed by air, it eventually becomes extraordinarily fragrant, with the scent lasting for a long time.

Creative Use 3: Cultivating Tree Species

Example: Dodo Bird Feces

The African island nation of Mauritius once had two unique local species: the dodo bird and the tambalacoque tree. The dodo was a large, slow-moving, flightless bird that is now extinct. The tambalacoque tree is a precious tree with straight trunks, hard wood, and fine grain patterns. Around 1693, when the last dodo disappeared, people discovered that tambalacoque trees also developed "infertility." By the 1980s, only 13 precious tambalacoque trees remained in Mauritius. Anxious scientists finally discovered the survival relationship between dodos and tambalacoque trees: dodos ate the fruits of these trees, and the fruit pulp and the hard outer shell of the seeds were digested through the dodo's digestive system, after which the expelled seeds could germinate. Scientists then came up with the idea of having turkeys eat tambalacoque tree fruits to replace dodos, bringing this tree species back from the brink of extinction.

Creative Use 4: Medicinal Healing

Example: Ye Ming Sha (Bat Feces), Wang Yue Sha (Rabbit Feces), Wu Ling Zhi (Flying Squirrel Feces)

Traditional Chinese medicine experts point out that many animal feces are excellent medicinal materials with remarkable therapeutic effects, some of which are even quite valuable. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing's "Synopsis of the Golden Chamber" recorded prescriptions using animal feces such as chicken manure white, male rat droppings, burned dog feces, horse feces, and cow liquid (dilute cow dung) for treating diseases. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" also records as many as 51 types of animal feces used medicinally, involving 32 types of animals including birds, beasts, and even humans.

The records include: pig feces, called "zhu ling," treats pediatric disorders; sheep feces treats infantile diarrhea, called "shi zhong su," treats pediatric disorders and anorexia; donkey feces treats excessive menstruation; camel feces, used externally, stops nosebleeds; lion feces breaks stagnant blood and kills hundreds of insects; tiger feces treats deep-rooted abscesses and fistulas; deer feces treats difficult labor; cat feces treats smallpox pustules that have sunken inward; wolf feces treats fish bone throat obstruction; monkey feces treats neonatal tetanus with lockjaw; pigeon feces, called "zuo pan long," treats scrofula and scabies; "bai ding xiang," which is sparrow feces, is warm in nature, bitter in taste, slightly toxic, can relieve stagnation and treat hernias, remove corneal opacity and pterygium, and treat vaginal discharge in women; swallow feces treats five types of urinary obstruction and difficulty urinating; peacock feces treats leucorrhea and difficult urination; eagle feces treats deficiency accumulations and kills tuberculosis bacteria; and so on.

Interestingly, ancient people also gave some elegant names to certain animal feces. For example, rabbit feces, which has the effect of killing parasites and can treat dim vision with corneal opacity, malnutrition, and hemorrhoids, was named "wang yue sha" (moon-gazing sand); bat feces, which clears heat, improves vision, disperses blood, and eliminates accumulations, and can be used to treat internal and external eye opacity, scrofula, and malnutrition, was named "ye ming sha" (night-bright sand); the feces of complex-toothed flying squirrels (also known as "han hao niao") or flying squirrels, which has the effect of activating blood circulation, removing blood stasis, and regulating qi and blood, and is used for treating bites from venomous insects such as snakes, scorpions, and centipedes, was named "wu ling zhi" (five-spirit fat).

Creative Use 5: Ancient Contraception

Example: Crocodile Feces Contraceptive

Thousands of years ago, Egyptians invented various contraceptive techniques. For example, their contraceptives recorded on papyrus had main ingredients that were actually the feces of a certain animal abundant in Egypt—the crocodile—plus honey, sometimes with frankincense (a resin), aloe vera, and even milk. The suppository prepared according to this formula was placed at the cervical opening and inside the vagina for contraception, which can be called "the earliest contraceptive in human history."

It is said that ancient Egyptians believed that animals such as crocodiles and elephants possessed mysterious powers, which is why they were applied in contraceptive formulas. However, from a scientific perspective, this method has the same basic principle as modern contraceptive drugs such as topical contraceptive creams and suppositories. Crocodile feces are strongly acidic and do have certain spermicidal effects, so their contraceptive effectiveness was likely quite real. However, due to the strong odor from animal feces, this contraceptive method has now "disappeared."

Creative Use 6: Cleaning Products

Example: Cow Dung Toothpaste, Camel Urine Shampoo

Earlier reports indicated that Berbers in Tunisia like to use cow dung to brush their teeth. This invention has even been made into toothpaste, becoming a unique daily necessity for Berbers.

The method for making cow dung toothpaste is roughly as follows: they dry cow dung until it's as hard as stone, then grind it into fine powder, mix in some spices and minerals, and use mint branches to dip into it, cleaning the tooth surfaces and gaps between teeth. This compound formula is said to have the effects of strengthening teeth, whitening them, and preventing gingivitis. For Berbers who eat meat year-round, this toothpaste is indeed very useful.

Bedouins, nomadic people in the Sahara Desert of North Africa, also like to use camel urine, which is notoriously foul-smelling, to wash their hair. Locals say that the desert climate is harsh and severely lacking in water, and Bedouin hair often harbors head lice. Camel urine happens to have excellent lice-killing properties, which is why it was chosen by them as "shampoo." It is said that hair washed with camel urine becomes shiny enough to reflect objects, and using it to wash the face can make skin smoother. This "beauty method" originating from ancient Egypt once spread throughout North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is said that the famous "Cleopatra" also used lion urine to wash her hair.

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