Kopi Luwak

Are you tired of drinking your espresso or cappuccino and would prefer to drink a coffee beverage that is a little bit more unique?  How would you like to try Kopi Luwak, the world's rarest and most expensive coffee beans?  While arabica coffee beans tend to be considered the highest quality coffee that is available, Kopi Luwak are the most famous type of Robusta coffee beans and is considered a gourmet coffee.  Extremely rare, it is estimated that as little as 500 pounds of Kopi Luwak coffee beans are available each year.  It is such a highly desired coffee that it sells for $75 per quarter pound.  This is an unimaginable high price for coffee but the story behind Kopi Luwak will make you understand why it's such a desired product.

While there are two types of coffee plants that are used in the commercial coffee trade, specific origins of coffee will have a large effect in determining the quality and worth of a coffee.  For this reason, Kopi Luwak is one of the most unique and high quality coffees available in the world.  Kopi Luwak is found in the three major Indonesian coffee producing islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi, as well as in some parts of Vietnam.  Considering where it is found, it is not surprising to learn that Kopi Luwak is a high quality coffee.  However, what makes it so unique is the way that it is processed.

In these major coffee growing areas resides a common, small marsupial known as the paradoxurus (or common palm civet, as it also known), which is part of the Sibet family.  These animals tend to climb coffee trees in this area and eat only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries.  As coffee cherries are a major part of the paradoxurus' diet (along with insects, small mammals, and fruits), they were long considered a pest in this region.  However, a remarkable thing happens when the paradoxurus eats these coffee cherries.  Due to their digestive systems, the paradoxurus is only able to digest the softer outer shell of the coffee cherry.  However, little layers of the coffee cherries' mucilage remain with the inner coffee bean remaining in tact.  Somehow in this whole process, the enzymes in the paradoxurus' stomachs add extra flavor to the coffee bean through fermentation.  This has resulted in one of the most sought after types of coffee available.

The fascinating story behind the Kopi Luwak flavoring process would be enough to create a market for the product.  The term Kopi Luwak can be translated from Indonesian to English with Kopi meaning coffee and Luwak being the local term for the paradoxurus.  However coffee lovers absolutely adore the taste of Kopi Luwak.  A coffee with a strong caramel taste and a heavy body, many have described the taste of the Kopi Luwak as complex with unusual flavor.  This is probably due to the fact that the coffee beans have fermented in the stomach acids and enzymes of the paradoxurus rather than water.  A sweet drink that features an earthy flavor with a musty smell, the Kopi Luwak is one of the most unique and best tasting beverages in the whole world.