Did you know that the world’s most expensive coffee comes from cat poop?? Well, we aren’t speaking about your regular cat here but a little beast called the Kopi Luwak or a palm civet. The Kopi Luwak is a species of civet cat native to Indonesia who poops out digested cherries which happens to be its favorite food. This cherry poop is then harvested and turned into coffee also known as Kopi Luwak coffee, the most expensive coffee in the world.
Kopi Luwak coffee is also called cat poop coffee and cost near about 60$ for a cup or almost $700 to a $1500 for a kg. Consider that with an ordinary brand of coffee that cost about 20$ -$30 a kg. The biggest factor of cat poop or Kopi Luwak coffee is the unusual method of production which doesn’t exactly yield loads of coffee easily. Farmers need to wait till the little beast shits the cherries out, only then can it be certified as 100% pure Kopi Luwak coffee. But are you really getting 100% pure Kopi Luwak today? Read on to find out the shocking twist in the tale.
Image Source: guim.co.uk
The coffea is a plant native to Africa and parts of Asia like Indonesia. It was introduced during the days of the Dutch Colonies of the East Indies islands of Java and Sumatra. At the time even the Arabica coffee from Yemen was brought to Sumatra by the Dutch who established coffee plantations in their colonies. The locals working on such plantations were not allowed to taste this new delicious brew that was called KOPI (coffee) in the area. But this is what they found to their amazement.
Image Source: wikimedia.org
The workers on the plantation discovered that the local Asian civet a little black beast would wander into the plantations at night to eat the coffee cherries growing on the trees. The seeds of the coffee fruits were regularly found in their poop droppings as those were not digested by them. The workers then hit upon the idea of collecting the seeds from the pop to make coffee themselves. It turned out even more exotic, flavorful than the regular coffee being harvested by their Dutch masters. This is how Kopi Luwak came into being.
Image Source: telegraph.co.uk
There is a repulsive charm to the story of this black beast called the Kopi Luwak. The creature itself is very shy which is why it wanders only at night among coffee plantations choosing the choicest cherries for itself. It selects only the ripest fruits to eat but the problem here is that it does not spit out the seeds and it cannot digest stone which is why the seeds are eliminated in its feces. It’s ironical that the most expensive coffee in the world has turned out to be crap coffee literally.
Image Source: bukalapak.com
The coffee bean undergoes some sort of fermentation within the civet’s digestive system. The most amazing thing found regarding coffee seeds from civet poop is that there are negligible amounts of bacterial organisms in the feces. The endocarp of the cherry is partially digested and this is what farmers collect when they find clumps of the pop left behind in the plantations.
Image Source: mongabay.com
The collected coffee endocarp is washed thoroughly to eliminate any remaining bacteria and is then roasted which is also removes further traces of bacteria. Combined with the possible musk imparted by the animal anal glands and the roasting is what gives the coffee its aromatic musky flavor of exotic roasted coffee.
Image Source: typepad.com
The biggest tragedy about such a situation is that when people go wise to the massive popularity of the civet poop coffee and its worldwide demand. Local farmers resorted to trapping civets and keeping them caged for the sole purpose of feeding them cherries to collect their poop. Reports abounded about how civets were force-fed with coffee fruits. There are cruel farms existing in Indonesia where poached animals are reared in the most sordid conditions becoming only tools for greedy farmers.
Image Source: www.indoneo.com
Conservationists, NGO’s and PETA have found that captive civets are kept in the most horrific conditions. The animals regularly display abnormal behavior such as relentless pacing up and down in cages as well as fighting with their own kind. Many are starved of nutrition and tens of thousands of civets kept in such dreaded conditions result in high mortality rates for the animal.
Image Source: theethicalist.com
While the Luwak went from a wild to a captive species, the myth that Kopi Luwak was still an exotic coffee was being peddled to westerners worldwide. Trapped Kopi Luwak is not the same as that made from the poop of a wild civet. The stress and conditions of the captivity seems to have a negative impact on the poop which people soon found wasn’t as flavorful as wild Kopi Luwak. Sadly the trade soon became a fraudulent one.
Image Source: nyt.com
In a boost to prevent the matter of trapped civets escalating, scientists soon devised a test to differentiate between authentic Kopi Luwak from wild civets and that of trapped animals. The chemical signature for 100% wild civet voided kopi luwak turned out to be levels of citric acid in the poop that revealed if it was a captive or wild animal.
Image Source: .janegoodall.org
What most people should know is that almost 70% of kopi Luwak comes from captive animals. In fact several Indonesian businessmen have also tried peddling regular coffee under the brand of Kopi Luwak, so one has to be exceptionally careful when purchasing kopi Luwak. The biggest reason why captive animals aren’t able to produce high quality poop is simply because the cherries are picked by humans who definitely have no civet instincts to know what the best or juiciest fruit for a civet.
Instead of berries from bushes and trees they are made to eat berries from a bowl. Unripe fruit is one of the main reasons that causes the death of civets in Indonesia. However, the civet is yet to be declared an endangered species and is labeled only as a vulnerable animal.
Image Source: www.todayifoundout.com
Today in Vietnam and Philippines; there are two types of farming of kopi luwak. When many still resort to captive farming in Indonesia and Sumatra which is the biggest producer of Kopi Luwak of the Arabic type, there are farms in Dak Lak Vietnam and Mindanao Island Philippines that keeps only wild civets for kopi luwak production.
Image Source: imagevietnam.vnanet.vn
Several tasting experiments in the US yielded results that there wasn’t really anything special in Kopi Luwak coffee except for its slightly acidic taste. Moreover, it was purchased more for its rarity and novel production method rather than flavor. There are experiments on in the University of Florida who has also acquired a patent on producing coffee with the similar flavor of Kopi Luwak while a Brooklyn startup has managed to replicate the flavor with an improved nutritional value.
Image Source: www.phactual.com
Genuine kopi Luwak coffee is extremely difficult to purchase which is why it is so expensive. Cheaper variants are most probably fakes which is why one should exercise precaution while purchasing. In fact, instead of enjoying kopi luwak, people worldwide should follow Tony Wild, the man responsible for bringing Kopi Luwak to the western world. He no longer drinks kopi luwak coffee because of the cruelty factor in its commercialized production. He even launched a campaign called “cut the crap” to stop the production of the worlds crap coffee.
Image Source: themanual.com