Costliest coffee in the world?
We went to a agrobusiness coffee plantation in Bali (Batubulan village) that advertised Luwak coffee. We saw quite a few plantations like this. I had no idea what Luwak coffee is or why it is so costly. At the end of the tour we had a little of the coffee too.
What I did not know is how the coffee is made. I remember seeing the whole coffee production process in a coffee plantation in Costa Rica once but this is rather unique. And gross.
First a cat like animal – called civet – Indonesians call it a “luwak” (see the picture – the farm had quite a few of them) actually eats the coffee cherries from the trees. Inside the stomach, the cherry goes thru the digestion process. The fermentation dissolves the outer layer but the beans themselves (there are two beans in a pod) cannot be digested by the cat’s digestive system. So, next day, it poops the beans out (this is the gross part). You can see dry poop in the picture.
The poop is then collected and cleaned and the beans recovered. The shells are broken and then roasted in an open oven as shown in the picture. Finally, the beans are ground to powder like the lady was doing.
After packaging, it is then sold at prices that reach 20X-40X more than normal coffee!!
My passion
After drinking it .. do you need to go see a vet? đ
Only these “luwak” cats can digest the outer coating of the coffee cherries or rather cannot digest the inner beans ? How much cheaper it would have been if our digestive enzymes were similar ….though it would have been ‘ grossest ‘ !
oh God !! no more coffee for me
Read it somewhere recently…. never seen though
Not sure if itâs worth the cost or the effort
I call it âpoop coffeeâ, but apparently the price is worth the taste! Give me a Starbucks grande non-fat misto any day!
“Grande non-fat” – there is an oxymoron right there!!
I believe Luwak coffee from wild Luwaks are more expensive than farm luwaks. Wild luwaks are experts in selecting and eating the best coffee cherries and coffee beans out of their system are the best and lot more expensive.
That be true!
Does it taste 20X-40X more amazing than coffee? What was your tasting experience?
Regrettably, I liked it !! đ
This was talked about in The Bucket List movie. Not being a coffee drinker I wasn’t sure if it was real or not.
I am good with Starbucks…
OMG.. profitable output
Check out the movie “Bucket list” – it has a hilarious dialogue between Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman about Luwak coffee :-).
Also, check out Uluwatu temple – a spectacular 1000+ year old shrine sitting on top of 70 meter cliffside : the beach below is world famous for Surfing, so you get 2 for the price of 1 :-). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nr25uS1LmQ
We got some as gifts, did not taste. My research says that the Luwak seem adept at picking the best berries. If you start with decent Arabica beans to begin with, then not much detectable difference. I keep wondering how desperate must the person who first tried this have been!
As much as the first person to source milk from another animal and drink it, no?
Anamika Chatterjee maybe, but the âprocessingâ is a bit different!
LOL, yes đ
That’s correct. We got Luwak coffee.
Check out the The Bucket List and ffwd about 3/4 the way into the movie. The âlaugh so hard you cryâ item, which describes thr verrrrry expensive Luwak coffee is one of the best parts of the movie.
Ever since I read your comment, I had been wondering what is the origin of the phrase “to give a wide berth”. Finally, this morning, before everybody got up, I got a chance to do some research. I might have to dig deeper but as of now, I think I know enough !!