![]() Coffee cherries in various levels of ripeness ![]() High quality coffees are produced only from ripe cherries, which makes the harvest process take a much longer time. Many coffee plantations that prioritize quantity over quality harvest both ripe and unripe cherries, which translates to less flavor, less sweetness, and more bitterness in the final cup. When coffee cherries ripen, they do it an uneven pace, which means that you can have ripe red cherries at the same time as unripe yellow or green ones on the same coffee plant. ![]() But that’s not the official explanation of why it’s supposedly so good. What I’m saying is that a great part of the success of Kopi Luwak is due its being marketed as something special, expensive and unique, with an interesting story behind (it comes from poop!). This is why professional tasting sessions must be done “blind”, that is without knowing what specific coffee you’re tasting. Many people, when offered to taste what is touted as the most expensive or the best coffee in the world, are predisposed to say that it’s excellent, and even give reasons why they like it. Why is it Kopi Luwak so good (allegedly)? Tony Wild would later regret having popularized this exotic coffee, and he even started a campaign against it. The sensational coffee was made internationally famous by appearing on news media, TV shows, and even movies like The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. In modern times, British coffee trader Tony Wild introduced Kopi Luwak to the West in 1991, as he mentions in his book about the dark history of coffee. This is how coffee beans look when present in the poop of a LuwakĬenturies later, someone realized they could market this coffee as something exotic and unique, that would command a premium price. These beans pass through the digestive system of the civet mostly without being digested, so they are easily recognizable when present in the poop (as you can see in the image below). It was forbidden for the local pickers to harvest coffee for their own use, so instead, they gathered and processed the coffee beans from the droppings of the palm civet. The Dutch established there coffee plantations, with beans imported from Yemen. In the 1700s, what we now know as Indonesia was a Dutch colony called the East Indies. But only in modern times, has it been marketed as a luxury product. Kopi Luwak has been around since the early days of coffee production in South East Asia, that is, since the late 1600s, so it’s really nothing new. The second and also important reason is that there are serious ethical concerns with the way Kopi Luwak is produced. There are far better alternatives when it comes to finding the highest quality coffee and the best possible flavor. The short answer is no, I believe Kopi Luwak is not worth it, first because it just doesn’t have the best taste. I first learned about Kopi Luwak while watching the Bucket List movie, where Jack Nicholson’s character calls it “ the rarest beverage in the world.”īut, is Kopi Luwak worth the hype (and the cost)? It sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, and it’s surrounded by an aura of exoticism. “Kopi” means coffee in the Indonesian language. It’s made by processing partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and excreted (!) by an animal that looks like a mix between a cat and a raccoon, called the Luwak or Asian Palm Civet. Kopi Luwak is believed by many to be the most expensive coffee in the world.
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