Coffee from feces. The most expensive coffee beans in the world. Real luwak coffee

Coffee Luwak (coffee Luwak, Luwak) - the most expensive drink in the world, which is made from excrement. The taste of the drink is very specific, but true gourmets are ready to give any money to appreciate it at least once!

Origin

The most expensive coffee, Luwak, first began to be sold in the nineteenth century. Its appearance is associated with the Dutch: they took over the coffee plantations in Bali and Indonesia, and did not allow the locals to collect grains for personal use. However, they decided not to give up coffee and began to make a drink from feces, in the intestines of which the grains underwent a complex fermentation process.

The name of the drink is also associated with this story. Coffee beans were extracted from the poop of wild civets (musangs), which are called luwak in their “homeland”. The luwak is an omnivore that resembles a marten. Civets feed on both insects and berries and fruits. However, they give special preference to coffee beans. The animals completely process the pulp in the stomach, while the grains come out in their original form, exposed to gastric juice, a special enzyme called civet, and substances secreted by the intestinal microbiota.

How is coffee made?

Kopi Luwak (better known as wild civet) has a special composition of gastric juice. It is he who breaks down the substances contained in coffee beans, giving the future drink a special flavor. Grains pass through the gastrointestinal tract with little or no damage. The taste of kopi Luwak coffee is particularly rich.

Animals do not eat all coffee beans. They choose those that have a sweet aftertaste. This also explains why the finished Luwak coffee drink is so tasty.

The collection of excrement with grains is carried out by local farmers. This process is quite laborious. After all, first the feces must be washed with plenty of water, and then dried thoroughly in the sun.

Coffee can also be made from elephant feces. Only they eat coffee beans. True, the musangs themselves feast on them, and the elephants have to mix the grain into the feed.

Luwak coffee makers claim that they only collect the excrement that wild animals poop out. However, this is not so: it is simply impossible to process feces in such large quantities. Therefore, civets are kept in special farms. You can not endlessly use the "resource" of the animal. If it eats too many grains, it will not be able to digest them, resulting in the drink not having a characteristic aftertaste.

Luwaks are taken care of very carefully. Each animal has a veterinary passport, every day the health status of the "producers" of the elite drink is checked by specialists.

Why is the drink so expensive?

It is believed that coffee from animal droppings is the most expensive coffee variety, because in the process of extracting beans, farmers are forced to manually process animal excrement. However, this is not true. The reasons for the high cost are as follows:

• Luwak coffee beans should only be given to animals two or three times a week. The rest of the time they eat soups of chicken, noodles, rice and corn, which the farm workers have to boil;
• some varieties of coffee are made from monkey feces;
• the animals that "produce" special grains of Luwak coffee from litter are extremely selective. They can eat only the ripest grains that have a sweet aftertaste. These grains must be collected manually;
• on farms where civets are kept, excursions are conducted for tourists. Despite the fact that the elite coffee-producing animals are quite aggressive, during the day they can be stroked and held in your hands. During daylight hours, civets prefer to doze, and at night they do not let people near them;

• the health of civets is monitored by a whole army of veterinarians, whose services are expensive.

Some animal rights activists argue that coffee-eating animals are kept in appalling conditions and are fed a kilogram of coffee beans a day. When a civet poops, only 50 grams of the required fermented product is obtained. Is it so difficult to say: due to the peculiarities digestive system civets simply cannot digest the amount of feedstock required to produce a drink on a global scale. Beans of Luwak Coffee will leave the intestines unchanged, as a result of which the drink will not get the desired taste properties and no one will want to buy it.

special taste

Coffee from the litter, judging by the description of coffee lovers, has a special taste: rich, with light caramel and chocolate notes. It is called the "drink of the gods" and the most delicious coffee in the world. It cannot be ruled out that people who have paid so much money to brew such coffee, which the civet “made”, simply inspire themselves that they have tasted something extraordinary.

Luwak coffee, the cost of which is amazing, is often made artificially by adding it to regular coffee. special set flavors. A true gourmet will always distinguish a fake from the original drink and they say that fake coffee was not next to the real one. There are more interesting way making kopi luwak coffee: ordinary beans are fermented using the civet enzyme to obtain a special flavor, which is obtained by chemical means. In this case, the drink will also have a less intense taste than the one that passed through the civet intestine, although only connoisseurs of Luwak will notice this.

Finding original grains is not easy. "Wild" plantations, where grains are extracted from civets' shit, are found only in Indonesia, where there is a very high probability of acquiring a fake in tourist places. There are several plantations in Bali, but they only cooperate with wholesale buyers and companies that produce coffee on an industrial scale, and do not sell their products to tourists.

Many people who have purchased Luwak claim that the rumors about its unusual taste are rather exaggerated. However, it is impossible not to feel pleasure if you drink the most expensive drink in the world, especially if it is Luwak coffee from Vietnam.

How much is the most expensive coffee in the world?

A drink made from pumped grains that have been in the intestines of wild animals is more expensive for two reasons. The collection of faeces and the production of the drink takes more time and the coffee from the poop has more valuable taste. This is due to the fact that in the wild animals eat only the best coffee fruits (or, as they are also called, cherries). On farms, they are forced to be content with the food that employees give them.

The high price of Luwak coffee on sale is also due to the characteristics of the biology of civets. They do not breed in captivity, so farmers are forced to catch "producers" in the wild.

In Russia, you can buy an animal Luwak on several specialized sites. It should be ensured that the seller presents the appropriate certificates of quality. The price of Luwak cannot be low, and large discounts should arouse suspicion.

Real Luwak coffee, which is produced in Indonesia, is a unique drink. It is both the most expensive and the most unusual coffee. Its price per gram is comparable to the cost of gold. Not every person will dare to spend a lot of money to try it. However, true coffee connoisseurs are simply obliged to taste a drink literally invented by nature at least once in their life.

Now money plays a big role in a person's life. I would even say that we spend most of our time looking for the most profitable business. Everyone is especially interested in the business that will bring money in a short time.

Most think little about ways to achieve wealth, and this sometimes brings problems. Any business is built not only on fast and cheap methods. Much depends on quality, and it cannot be achieved by easily accessible methods.

Incredible way to make money

In our modern age, people have learned to make money on everything, not only on large and small production. The availability of the Internet made it possible to earn money even on pets. To sell absolutely everything, there would be a desire, but there will always be a buyer.

Returning to the topic of pets, not all owners keep them out of the kindness of their hearts. Many earn on them, you have often seen ads for the sale of puppies or kittens, a rare breed with an ancient pedigree. And how many such scammers among sellers.

The Internet has greatly facilitated access to information, communication at a distance, but also made it possible for fraudulent schemes to flourish unhindered. Therefore, when buying anything online, work only with trusted sites, protect yourself.

The latest innovative way to improve your financial situation at the expense of a pet has been the maintenance of a musang, or better a few. Ask who is it? Otherwise, it is called a luwak, an animal that produces.

I'm sure you're wondering what does the little animal have to do with coffee production? Let's start in order.

Who is Luwak?

Musang is a small animal, dark gray in color with thick and coarse hair, with black stripes along the body. He loves a warm tropical climate because he lives on palm trees. She has many names:

• Malayan Marten;
• Palm civet.

But most often she is known in the world as Luwak.

The places where the animals live are:

• Java and Borneo islands;
• South.

They settle on palm trees, and do not create flocks. They intersect with their relatives only during the mating season. Since both males and females have testicle-shaped scent glands, these animals are sometimes said to be hermaphrodites. For a long time, they were considered pests in their homeland.

Despite the fact that these mammals are omnivores, they eat a variety of foods:

• Various fruits;
• small insects;
• The bats;
• Small birds and their eggs;
• Also worms;
• Small rodents like squirrels and their young;
• snakes;
• Lizards.

Luwak's favorite treat is coffee beans.

For some time, they tried to exterminate them by all available means. The fact is that the animals lead an active life at night, and they are quite difficult to catch. Making their way to coffee plantations, they choose only the most delicious and ripe beans. During the day, the animal sleeps, fitting into the interweaving of vines and small branches.

Unfortunately, it is not known who turned out to be this original. The main thing is that, after tasting this coffee, gourmets found it the most amazing. The coffee taste is reminiscent of vanilla and chocolate without being bitter.

In addition to producing an expensive variety of unusual coffee, musangs bring other benefits to people. Settling, close to people, in stables and other outbuildings, they help get rid of small rodent pests. So these are quite pleasant neighbors, and even with the opportunity to earn money on them.

Scheme of production of the most expensive coffee

How does this unusual taste of coffee come about? According to the observations of scientists, coffee beans, passing through the intestines of luwak, are processed by a special enzyme - "cebitin". Thanks to him, the bitterness that is inherent in coffee goes away, while leaving the rest of the special taste properties, plus vanilla complements it.

AT vivo luwak, or in Latin paradoxurus hermaphroditus, produces only a few kilograms of such coffee per year. So residents and producers put a lot of effort into carefully collecting the resulting product and sending it for further processing. That is why its cost starts from $400 to $1500.

Despite the fact that Kopi Luwak coffee is produced in such an unusual and perhaps even unpleasant way for many. Few people liked to watch the entire production and processing process.

Most prefer not to think about where coffee comes from, but simply enjoy the unusual taste of the final product. Hence the great popularity of coffee only all over the world. Therefore, many coffee companies are trying to produce it artificially.

Entire Luwak farms are kept in Asian countries

Only an animal of the civet family, living in captivity, produces coffee that is not so fragrant and tasty. After all, the food of the animal in captivity is different from the usual, he eats what they give, without choosing the best, as in freedom.

The closest in taste characteristics to wild is the Vietnamese coffee "Chon". This is all thanks to the technology of manual selection of coffee beans, only the best are fed to martens.

Some manufacturers tried to recreate a rare coffee in the laboratory, but nothing worked synthetically processed with civet, in the end it did not give the desired result. Most likely, coffee is also affected by other enzymes found in the intestines of a small marten.

Unusual "producer"

Wikipedia gives detailed description animal life. And below you can see a photo of this cute creature. Luwak is quickly tamed, even living with people, on rooftops or near growing trees. And you don't have to put him in a cage.

We earn thousands of dollars with the help of an exotic animal

Recently, it has become popular to breed Luwak, many entrepreneurs earn hundreds of thousands from coffee martens. In content, this is not a whimsical creature, and an omnivore. Although he chooses only the best from food.

But if you want the best coffee as a result, then it is worth building the conditions closest to the natural wilderness, then demand will only increase.

The best part is that it is quite easy to breed musangs, the pregnancy in females is short of only two months and it brings from two to four cubs. Therefore, it will not be difficult to develop an extensive production of exotic coffee. But if you want to be unrivaled in your production, put more effort into creating comfortable conditions for the habitat of palm martens.

Interesting story

After all, living in other climatic conditions, their body is arranged differently, and it is not known what viruses they carry. And legally obtaining permission to import such an animal is quite difficult. So many certificates and permits need to be collected that in the end, many simply abandon the idea of ​​​​establishing such an animal.

That is why the smuggling business flourishes so much. People do not understand that getting a crocodile without knowing how to keep it can result in a lot of problems. It was precisely these problems that my friend acquired, who decided to bypass the law to buy an exotic cat, to be more precise, the “Velvet Wild Cat”.

But she was brought a completely different animal. Instead of the chosen little cat, she was delivered a "Bornean cat", it turned out later. In general, she paid a decent amount of money for this fluffy miracle.

Problems started within a couple of days.

She was not really explained how to care for her, and on the Internet she was looking for information about a completely different variety of cats. And no one explained to her that both the owner and the animal need to be vaccinated against various infections, most of which are transmitted through a bite or cut from the claws.

Believe me, wild cats are different from domestic ones, especially those that were forcibly pulled out of their familiar environment and not tamed to people. So my friend suffered from her lack of awareness.

This story ended rather sadly, firstly, the animal got sick due to improper care. Secondly, his owner became seriously ill with a severe fever due to a cut on her hand left by a wild cat.

Of course, they managed to cure both, but after being discharged from the hospital, the friend was dragged for a long time to various authorities and fined a serious amount for the illegal import of the animal.

I can say one thing: do not chase exotic, the result may not please you

If you admire wild animals so much, then go to the zoo or go on a tourist safari, where you can safely enjoy the wildlife.

I hope my tips help you. Thanks to all my subscribers, your opinion is important to me, so write your questions, I will be happy to answer them. Share useful interesting articles with your friends and subscribe to . See you.

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Coffee is popular energy drink, which is drunk all over the world. It is approved by most religions, contains caffeine, which stimulates the mind and senses, and has a wonderful aroma.

The online statistics portal Statista.com states that the global market instant coffee will rise to $36.3 billion in 2020. And even if you prefer not the most expensive coffee, you are still one of the reasons for this growth.

And if you have the desire and opportunity to try a very rare, unusual and valuable coffee, then choose any option from this list of the most expensive coffees in the world according to your budget.

10. Hawaii Kona - $34 per pound (0.45 kg)

This coffee has a fantastic taste with a slight sourness: chocolate, citrus notes and nutty hints are felt in it. The aroma of coffee is creamy and spicy, inhaling it you may remember sweet cinnamon buns.

Hawaii Kona is made from a rare Arabica bean that grows in mineral-rich volcanic soil in the northern and southern parts of the Kona region. And when Hawaii Kona blooms, you might think that there is snow on the trees in hot weather.

Due to the fact that this coffee is in short supply, many producers use a 10% blend of Kona coffee and 90% of a cheaper variety.

9. Los Planes Coffee - $40 per pound

Some people dedicate their entire lives to making coffee. And their favorite business brings them a fabulous income. So the family of Sergio Tikas from El Salvador combines business with pleasure - and grows coffee and sells it.

Los Planes Coffee took second place in the prestigious Cup Of Excellence competition in 2006 and sixth place in 2011. This drink has a pleasant aroma of caramel sauce, and an invigorating taste with fruity notes. And in the aftertaste, the sweetness of honey and almonds is felt.

8. Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frappuccino - $54.75 per cup

This is the most expensive coffee in the Starbucks coffee chain. Its high price is due to the addition of 60 espresso shots.

The drink was purchased by a customer named Andrew, who posted a photo of the giant coffee and a receipt on Twitter.

By the way, he did not pay a cent for his purchase, because he is a member of the loyalty program. And it has Gold status, which allows you to order a free drink after every 12 drinks purchased. And without any restrictions on the volume of the mug.

According to Andrew, the coffee he ordered was delicious. However, the man was unable to drink his mug in one go. Would you?

7. Brazil Santa Ines - $50 per pound

The highlight of this coffee is its fruity and sweet taste with hints of caramel, raisins, prunes and vanilla. It is grown in Brazil on the Santa Ines farm and has been in production for over a hundred years.

This valuable coffee is processed in an unusual way called Honey.

• Part of the pulp (pulp) is removed from the fruit in the same way as in wet processing.
• Coffee beans are dried in the usual way, but the rest of the pulp transfers its sweetness.
• Therefore, the finished drink tastes sweet and honey (hence the name Honey).

6. Jamaica Blue Mountain - $50 per pound

The name of coffee is given by the place of origin - it is grown in the Jamaican Blue Mountains at an altitude of about 1200-1500 meters above sea level. Blue Mountain is harvested by hand and processed only in a wet way - that is, the peel of the fruit and pulp are removed, after which the grains remain in a thin shell - “parchment”.

Jamaica Blue Mountain is the only coffee in the world that comes in wooden barrels instead of bags.

This drink has a characteristic mild taste, which is completely devoid of bitterness. It is popular in Japan, which is one of the largest importers of this brand. At one time it was drunk by John Lennon and "Papa Bond" Ian Fleming.

5. Saint Helena Coffee - $79 per pound

The great Napoleon Bonaparte was a passionate admirer of this coffee and grew it on the island of Saint Helena, which explains its name.

The island is located in the Atlantic Ocean, 1800 km off the west coast of Africa. Therefore, the transportation costs for transporting coffee are high, which is one of the reasons for the impressive price tag. However, lovers of this brand are more than willing to fork out, as the drink has a unique caramel flavor with citrus hints.

4. Kopi Luwak - $160 per pound

Surely you have heard about the most expensive coffee in the world from the litter. Yes, we are talking about the famous "Kopi-luwak", made from grains fermented in the body of musangs (or Malayan palm civet).

Eating juicy and mature coffee beans, the animals then get rid of them in a natural way. And people get coffee from musang feces, process it and sell it to coffee connoisseurs by no means at the price of manure.

The excellent taste of this coffee with hints of vanilla and chocolate is due to the enzymes secreted by the civet during digestion.

It is curious that in a day the animal can eat up to a kilogram of grains, and the “output” will be about 50 grams. In addition, the enzyme that gives coffee its noble taste is not secreted from musangs all year round, but only for 6 months, so they have to be fed “just like that” for the remaining time. Which is expensive for those who keep musangs for their unique diet.

Now you understand why Kopi Luwak is so expensive. However, on this moment it's not the most expensive coffee in the litter. This title took him the first number from our list.

3. Hacienda La Esmeralda - $350 per pound

In recent years, the third most expensive coffee variety has won many awards at world coffee competitions (first place from the Coffee Association of America from 2005 to 2007, The best coffee Panama, etc.).

It is cultivated on the slopes of the Baru volcano in Panama, at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level. The volcanic soil and the ecosystem, almost untouched by human hands, provide this coffee with ideal conditions for maturation.

This rare coffee delicacy offers connoisseurs a fantastic taste with a balanced combination of chocolate, fruity and spicy notes, and a rich aftertaste.

2. Finca El Injerto Coffee - $500 per pound

The second most expensive coffee in the world is grown in eastern Guatemala on the estate of the Aguirre family, who have been producing, processing and marketing high quality coffee for generations.

Finca El Injerto has great natural sweetness and rich flavor with notes of plum, cherry, praline, milk chocolate and exquisite citrus acidity. A coffee lover's dream.

1. Black Ivory Coffee - over $500 a pound

Here it is, a drink that bears the proud title of "the most expensive coffee from excrement." Like "Kopi Luwak", it is obtained from the feces, only not of musangs, but of Thai elephants, which consume Arabica coffee beans and process them during the digestive process.

Their stomach acid breaks down bean proteins and provides the drink with a characteristic mild taste, devoid of bitterness. And digesting the beans, along with bananas and other components of the usual elephant diet, gives Black Ivory coffee an earthy-fruity aroma.

The most expensive litter coffee is rare because elephants eat a lot of coffee beans, but give out much less. To get one kilogram of Black Ivory, an animal must eat about 33 kilograms of fresh coffee berries.

This brand is produced only in the north of Thailand and is available in the country's elite resorts. The price of the most expensive coffee in the world reaches about 1,100 dollars (71,000 rubles) per kilogram.

Every true coffee lover, if not tried, then at least heard about the world-famous Indonesian coffee luwak (kopi luwak).

What kind of epithets do not reward this coffee manufacturers and sellers: "the most expensive", "the most prestigious in the world", "elite", "premium class", "drink of the gods", its taste is "unusually soft", "caramel", " with a delicate aroma of vanilla and chocolate", and so on and so forth.

Although we ourselves do not really like coffee and are not great connoisseurs of it, we nevertheless decided to find out better what this most expensive "animal" coffee is like.

Luwak is pronounced as “luwak” in the local language, but since the pronunciation of “luwak” is more familiar to most, we will not retrain anyone and will continue to call it “luwak coffee”.

To write this post, we visited several Bali coffee plantations, as well as the annual Indonesian coffee festival in Ubud, where we tasted different varieties, compared ordinary coffee with luwak coffee, and also talked to local coffee masters.

So, get acquainted, the main character in the production chain of the most expensive coffee, a small animal with sad eyes - musang or palm civet ( paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

The process of making this exquisite coffee is as follows: civets eat fresh coffee berries, which are processed in their stomachs and intestines due to special enzymes.

Coffee beans, which naturally leave the digestive tract of animals, are dried in the sun, then thoroughly washed, and then again dried in the sun and only then roasted.

The best and most delicious coffee is produced by wild civets, who at night make their way to coffee plantations, where they feast on selected - juicy and ripe coffee berries,

and as a thank you, they leave their waste, which the farmers then find under the coffee bushes and carefully collect.

It is difficult to imagine in which inflamed brain the idea was originally born to pick out grains from excrement and eat them, but the fact remains that this happened, and they began to catch civet and put them in cages in order to put the production of luwak coffee on stream.

Despite the assurances of farmers that the civet continues to be fed exclusively with selected berries, this is hard to believe, and judging by the hungry eyes of the animals, they are unlikely to be very picky.

Each civet is fed about 1 kg of coffee berries per day, which yields only about 50 g of the necessary grains - this, in fact, explains the fact that luwak is the most expensive coffee. Civets live not only on coffee rations - since they are predators by nature, animal food should also be present in their diet - as a rule, they are fed with chicken.

During the day, luwaks are sleepy and lethargic and sleep most of the day, and their peak of activity comes at night, so the main feeding with coffee berries falls on the evening, and the chicken is given almost at night.

The high cost of this coffee is also explained by the fact that civets do not breed in captivity, so the only way to increase production is through wild animals. In addition, a special enzyme that affects coffee beans is produced in their bodies only 6 months a year, and the rest of the time they are kept “idle”. Many even release civets into the wild, and catch them again by the season - it turns out to be more profitable than feeding them for nothing for six months.

The cost of luwak coffee (kopi luwak) on the plantations is about 150 thousand rupees ($15) per 100 g, with a wholesale purchase of about $100 per kilogram. In Europe, the price reaches $400 per 1 kilogram, and in retail, the price for this expensive coffee packaged in packs can reach $100 per 100 g.

We asked to see the plantation and they gave us a tour of the grounds.

They showed the unfortunate civets slumbering in their cages. As a rule, they are quite aggressive, but during the daytime, some individuals turn out to be friendly, so that they can even be picked up. They are soft and fluffy to the touch, like cats, and their faces are very cute.

Tour of the coffee plantation

After the cages with animals, we looked at how the grains, which were not yet separated from the excrement, were dried on special pallets placed in the sun,

then the already selected and washed grains are dried,

after which, completely prepared and dried grains await their turn for the next process.

So on the plantations you can see the whole process of turning coffee - from berries that grow on trees to the usual roasted beans or even ground coffee packaged in packs for sale.

We even put our hands to the roasting process - the bean stirrer honored us by handing us his ladle.

Luwak coffee tasting

After the tour, we were invited to a table,

to the tasting ceremony, where they offered to taste several varieties of tea, as well as regular coffee.

We leisurely sipped tea, enjoying the views of the rice terraces.

But we were also offered to try kopi luwak, but for a separate fee - a cup of exclusive costs 50,000 rupees ($5).

We tried it later, at the Ubud Food Festival (which we'll talk about in a moment) - if you drink it with as much sugar as the Indonesians like, you can't tell the difference.

Without sugar, the taste of luwak coffee is slightly different - it is softer and less tart, but in our opinion the price for it is wound up more for the name than for the taste, although this is only our personal opinion, and we, again, are not coffee connoisseurs 🙂 In addition, it gives many people a purely psychological pleasure - to sit with a cup and realize that you are drinking the most expensive coffee in the world)

Plantations often contain other animals in addition to civets, such as porcupines,

rabbits,

bees and wasps are also bred there - wasp honey, by the way, has a very specific taste.

And also, in addition to coffee, spices and cocoa are grown on plantations (we already talked about it in the article "").

In the shops at the plantation, you can buy packaged spices and other products with extracts of cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg,

as well as tasting or smelling unpackaged, freshly picked spices.

Where are the coffee plantations in Bali

Most of the coffee plantations where kopi luwak can be found are located on the road leading to Kintamani ( mark on the map). There are several plantations there, we counted at least 5, on the road, as a rule, there is a large sign with the inscription Kopi Luwak.

There are not many accommodation options near the plantations, one of the few hotels nearby where you can stay is Bali Eco Advanture Resort. See other options here.

Real luwak coffee

Well, in general, of course, most of these plantations in Bali are, after all, a tourist attraction. Since the main advantage of real luwak coffee is that it is wild civets that select the most ripe and high-quality fruits. In the wild, especially in those places where there is no shortage of coffee trees, the animals will not eat anything.

True coffee connoisseurs, even if they have never tried the most expensive variety of this drink, have definitely heard about it. Kopi luwak (luwak) is the most common name for the presented coffee, it has an exquisite taste with a delicate aroma of vanilla and chocolate, and many gourmets claim that only it has every right to be called the “drink of the gods”.

Probably, every coffee lover dreams of trying Kopi luwak at least once in his life, in order to see for himself how the stories about this drink correspond to reality. But there are two important factors that can affect their dream: to drink a cup or two of the legendary coffee.

1. The cost of the drink. In many restaurants, you will have to pay about $100 for a serving of luwak.
2. Specific way of production.

If you have never been interested in this topic, then this method will simply shock you. The most expensive coffee in the world is chosen from animal droppings! But let's analyze the presented topic in detail, and only then draw conclusions about this extreme drink.

Small "producers" of the most expensive coffee in the world

The animal, without which it is impossible to get Kopi Luwak grains, is the musang, which is also called the Malayan palm marten (viverrid family). These are small mammals, the length of which does not exceed 60 cm, and the weight is 4 kg. They live in the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia (India, Philippines, China, etc.). Animals are nocturnal, many of them feel calm living next to people (in attics, in sheds).

It would seem, how can this small animal attract a person? Being omnivores (they eat worms, bird eggs, etc.), musangs are very fond of fruits coffee trees. But when eating them, the animals do not digest everything, but only part of the berries and their soft, top layer, the rest of the grains come out naturally.

The unique taste of the considered elite and expensive coffee from the litter is explained by the peculiarity of the gastric juice of animals and some of their bacteria. gastrointestinal tract, which, interacting with coffee berries, form a unique product that is in great demand among coffee lovers.

Interesting fact. One small animal can eat a kilogram of ripe coffee berries during the day! Living in the wild, he is able to find the highest quality and ripe fruits. Unfortunately, the percentage yield of grains from which you can get the best drink is low - about 5%. That is, musangs need to eat 10 kg of selected coffee berries (necessarily ripe and of high quality) in order to get half a kilogram of expensive raw materials for making Kopi luwak.

And a few more interesting facts about musangs and grains:

Exotic raw materials can be obtained only 6 months a year (this is how much the animals produce the necessary enzyme).
Grains obtained from males are valued more than from females.
Coffee products from musangs, in order to be recognized as meeting all international standards, must pass more than ten degrees of selection.
The taste qualities of coffee differ from each other, depending on the habitat of the animals (for example, in Ethiopia you will never get such a drink as in Sumatra).
Musangs do not breed in captivity, but live up to 25 years.

Technology for making the most expensive coffee from Musanga's litter

Today, in countries where musangs live, special farms are often found where they keep amazing animals. At the same time, many farmers do not care at all how their wards live. Musangs are kept from hand to mouth so that they eat as many berries as possible. But this method, as a result, negatively affects the quality of beans and coffee. Animals should eat fully, their diet should include not only coffee berries, but also meat food, bird eggs, etc. A real coffee specialist will immediately determine that the drink is made from grains from an animal that was kept in captivity and ate almost nothing but berries, not of the best quality.

The best grains are given by musangs living in the wild. Many farm owners often collect grains from animal droppings right next to coffee trees, not at all regretting the losses caused by “night visitors”. After all, the cost of luwak coffee in India or the Philippines rarely exceeds $100/kg, while in Europe it already rises to $400.

The process of obtaining expensive grains includes the following steps:

Complete feeding of animals;
dry the litter in the sun;
select grains;
fry the resulting products (the subtleties of this procedure are not told to anyone);
then the grains can be processed in the usual way for us, and an elite drink can be prepared.

The taste of the elite and, in combination, the most expensive coffee from the litter depends on the conditions of keeping and feeding the animals, the quality of the berries that the musangs ate and the observance of the technology for processing the raw materials obtained.

Pay attention to one important point. If you travel to tourist countries where elite beans are produced, you are unlikely to be able to taste real luwak coffee. locals most likely they will give you a fake.

Who invented exotic coffee

In the near future, we are unlikely to find out who managed to come up with such an exotic way of processing coffee berries. There are various legends, dubious stories and common tales associated with this issue.

The most plausible version is the following story. The colonialists on the island of Sumatra, after the population of musangs increased greatly, and the animals began to rapidly eat berries, they introduced a tax on coffee. But someone noticed grains in animal droppings and decided to dry them and then fry them. This discoverer made an excellent drink, which was soon known, but after all, there was no tax on excrement. From this moment begins the history of this amazing drink, which, despite the title of the most expensive coffee in the world from the litter, not everyone agrees to try.