What is Cat Poop Coffee?
“Cat Poop Coffee”, yep that’s right.
It’s a fascinating and strange process for making coffee in Indonesia that certainly gets people talking, in most cases without true knowledge of its origin and process. It’s called Kopi Luwak or Luwak Coffee. From the Indonesian language Kopi= Coffee and Luwak = Asian Palm Civet, also called Civet Coffee, Luwak Coffee or “Cat poop coffee”. I can assure you Cat poop Coffee tastes very good indeed.
A small, expensive and very strong cup of coffee
Not a real coffee connoisseur but always game to try something new, I spent the $5 USD for a very small cup to find out!
What is that in the bottom of the Cup?
What is Kopi Luwak or Luwak Coffee?
It is indeed a gourmet coffee and tasted pretty good to me, is made from the ripest coffee berries which are chosen and eaten by the Luwak. They’re then passed through the digestive tract of this cat like animal.
The story goes like this … the Luwak eat the very best coffee berries and the beans inside them pass through their system undigested.
The Luwak graciously deposits them on the jungle floor where they are eagerly collected by the local coffee farmers. This process takes place only on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Bali in the Indonesian Archipelago, so it’s single origin coffee.
Kopi Luwak Coffee is the most expensive and rare coffee in the world and only 500 to 700 Kg. are produced per year. The beans are washed out and given only a medium/light roast so as not to destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process.
How was it discovered?
This coffee came about in colonial times in Indonesia when the Dutch would not allow farmers to consume the coffee harvested in “their” plantations so, smart thinking and resourceful Balinese collected the beans found in the jungle floor (the civet pooh) and got their coffee this way, very clever I thought!
I’m absolutely intrigued with this process and had a great time writing this article.