Kopi Luwak - The Gourmet Coffee Drinker's Non Alcoholic Intoxication

Those who know the ins and outs of gourmet coffee know of a very special kind of coffee...a coffee that can transport a gourmet coffee lover into Paradise. It's called Kopi Luwak, and if it sounds rare and exotic, well...that's because it is.

Kopi Luwak is a Southeast Asian coffee. Its name is often translated as "weasel coffee", but the true translation of the name is "Civet Coffee", for its co-creator is a weasel-like, cat-like mammal called..what else? A "civet". Civets are shy creatures who dwell in regions where they can have access to their favorite delicacy: the ripest of coffee tree berries.

Kopi Luwak

Coffee beans are within the core of coffee berries. The civet loves the fleshy coffee berries, but does not eat and cannot digest the beans within. So, after the berries are digested, the civet relieves himself and within his droppings are found the undigested coffee beans. How on earth does arguably the finest gourmet coffee in all the world (yes, there are those who insist that it's even better than Kona) come from mammalian droppings? Well, even though the coffee beans don't get digested by the civet, his digestive enzymes nevertheless do come into contact with the beans within his stomach, and this causes them to release their special, hidden flavor compounds which regular roasting and brewing cannot bring out, for there is no way to duplicate what the civet's digestive enzymes do. The secret flavors are released when the Kopi Luwak farmers gather up, cleanse, and then sun-dry the beans.

Kopi Luwak Coffee

Ah, the subtle but strong, smooth, and never-bitter taste of this tongue-dazzling gourmet coffee simply cannot be put into words! Kopi Luwak is so delicious that experienced coffee drinkers who cannot do without their sugar and cream in their coffee are advised to drink it black...and when they do they virtually always agree that adding anything to this coffee would be sacrilege!

Most of the very limited supply of Kopi Luwak comes from Sumatra, Indonsia, Vietnam and Philippines. And the production can be done on Civet Farms or from the beans collected in the wild. For example Bantai Civet Coffee gets produced on a Sumatran civet farm in the Lampung province, where the lucky creatures eat only one of the finest strains of Arabica Typica. This Kopi Luwak is light-bodied and bright-tasting which is absolutely free of any bitterness. The aftertaste dances on the tongue the way a fine wine dances on the palate.

The civets on the farm live in cages by night but roam free by day, when they are let loose to hunt for the coffee berries scattered about by their farmer friends. Civets in captivity become very friendly and docile, and they are treated as beloved pets by the farmers. By living on the farm the captive civet populations are protected, too.

In contrast the Philippines variety is called "Coffee Alamid", and is gathered from the droppings of wild civets (rather then captive), known as Paradoxorus Philippinensis, a rare species. Commercial Coffee Alamid production actually protects these wild animals and sustains the livelihood of the forest denizens. A gourmet coffee enthusiast will find that Alamid gives a darker roast and a more complex, deeper flavor than its Sumatran competitor.