An Asian mammal and a coffee named Kopi Luwak: How are they connected? 

What do you think the ingredients of the most expensive coffee in the world would be? Of course, it would be made from cocoa. The cocoa beans used are probably of a much higher quality, right? Or it may have some additional expensive ingredients too! It may also be processed in a way that is much more expensive than the other coffee-generating methods. Well, you are almost there. Kopi Luwak is expensive because of the way it is processed. It is produced by processing the beans found in the poop a tiny mammal. Known as Asian palm civet, it comes with a rather long and furry tail and a pointed snout. Asian palm civet is found in the can be found in the temperate and tropical forests of South and South East Asia.  

You must be wondering, how much does this coffee cost? Well, half a kg of Kopi Luwak can be sold for for more than 1500 USD. That is a figure to remember for sure! The other coffee that is more expensive than this one is made from the beans which have passed through an elephant’s gut. Weird, isn’t it? 

Where is Kopi Luwak produced?  
Kopi Luwak is mainly produced on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Bali, Java,  Sulawesi and East Timor. It is also widely gathered in the forests and produced in farms in the Philippine islands where the product is called by different names in different regions. , Java,  Sulawesi and East Timor. It is also widely gathered in the forests and produced in farms in the Philippine islands where the product is called by different names in different regions.  and East Timor. It is also widely gathered in the forests and produced in farms in the Philippine islands. This coffee is called by different names in different regions.  

How is Kopi Luwak produced?  
The uniqueness of Kopi Luwak lies in the way it is produced. An Asian palm civet is known for its ability to select and eat only the ripest and sweetest coffee cherries in the wild. These cherries get fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines. When these partially digested and fermented coffee cherries are excreeted by the civet with other faecal matters, they are collected and processed further to produce coffee. And that’s why the coffee has also earned its moniker civet coffee.  

Origin  
But how did coffee start to be produced in such a manner? After all, who would even think of making coffee in such a way?  

Turns out that way back in the 1700s, the Dutch people set up coffee plantations in Sumatra and Java. The Dutch plantation owners didn’t allow the locals to harvest coffee beans for themselves. Meanwhile, the locals observed something interesting: Asian palm civet were gulping down the ripe coffee cherries, leaving the beans behind. So, they started brewing coffee for themselves from these excreted beans. 

Is Kopi Luwak superior to other coffees? 
But the question is what makes the civet coffee superior to other coffees? The advocates of this coffee argue that the answer lies in the selection of the main ingredient of coffee i.e coffee cherries and the way they are processed in their digestive tracts.  

Unlike human coffee pickers, civets naturally choose to eat only the most ripe and flawless cherries. This careful selection influences the flavour and smoothness of the coffee as does the digestive process of producing the coffee in their systems. Coffee beans generated by this method in nature or in the wild achieve a better goal than the usual mechanical process. It involves harvesting optimally ripe cherries, while mechanically and chemically removing the pulp and skin from the cherry, leaving mainly the seed. But how does that make it so expensive? That is because there is a great deal of labour involved and a relatively smaller quantity that you are dealing with.  

Not environment friendly  
This is certainly not the best way of producing coffee. Why? Driven by its popularity and high prices, Asian palm civets are increasingly caught in the wild and traded for the purpose. With increasing demand, many producers have turned to caged production methods to increase yields in which the civets are kept in battery cages and are force-fed the cherries. This has raised ethical concerns about the treatment of civets and the conditions they are made to live in. Isolation in small cages with poor diets leads to high mortality. These factors may also affect the civet’s ability to select cherries and process them, thereby influencing the coffee taste.