Step one, a civet will snack on a coffee cherry. Step two, the civet will do it’s its business and leave behind partially digested and fermented coffee cherries. The cherries ferment as they pass through the Civet’s body. Talk about organic huh? Coffee experts suggest that it’s the digestion process that adds a unique flavor to the coffee. The beans are then collected, washed, and roasted.
It has been dubbed the most expensive coffee in the world, despite the fact that it is a processing method rather than a coffee variety, with retail costs ranging from US$100 per kilogramme for cultivated beans to US$1,300 per kilogramme for wild-collected beans.
Coffee plantations were created in Indonesia by Dutch colonialists, who imported beans from Yemen. During the 19th century, farmers on the plantations would brew and drink coffee from the civet-digested beans. The Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, Bali, East Timor and Sulawesi are the main producers of kopi luwak. It’s also extensively harvested in the forest or grown on farms in the Philippines’ islands.
The flavour of kopi luwak varies depending on the type and origin of coffee beans, as well as the processing, roasting, maturing, and brewing techniques used. The civet’s ability to choose its berries, as well as other characteristics of its diet and health, such as stress levels, may influence the processing and hence taste. The wild capture and trading of Asian palm civets are becoming more common. This coffee’s production is not as “wild” as its origins. Several commercial techniques seek to mimic the civet’s digestive function without using animals.