Kopi luwak

Sumatran kopi luwak farmer shows beans prior to cleaning and roasting, Sumatra, Indonesia

Kopi luwak (Malay pronunciation: [ˈkopi ˈlu.aʔ]), or civet coffee, is one of the world's most expensive and low-production varieties of coffee. It is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In the digestive tract, the civets' proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness. This coffee is widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world with prices reaching $350 per kilogram ($160 per pound).

Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago. It is also produced in the Philippines (where the product is called motit coffee in the Cordillera, kape alamid in Tagalog areas) and in East Timor (where it is called kafé-laku). Weasel coffee is a loose English translation of its Vietnamese name cà phê Chồn, where popular, chemically simulated versions are also produced. However, Vietnam has 2 farms with 300 wild civets in Dak Lak.

History

A cup of Kopi Luwak Gayo, Takengon, Aceh, Indonesia

The origin of Kopi Luwak is closely connected with the history of coffee production in Indonesia. In the early 18th century the Dutch established the cash-crop coffee plantations in their colony in the Dutch East Indies islands of Java and Sumatra, including Arabica coffee introduced from Yemen. During the era of Cultuurstelsel (1830—1870), the Dutch prohibited the native farmers and plantation workers from picking coffee fruits for their own use. Still, the native farmers wanted to have a taste of the famed coffee beverage. Soon, the natives learned that certain species of musang or luwak (Asian Palm Civet) consumed the coffee fruits, yet they left the coffee seeds undigested in their droppings. The natives collected these luwaks' coffee seed droppings, then cleaned, roasted and ground them to make their own coffee beverage. The fame of aromatic civet coffee spread from locals to Dutch plantation owners and soon became their favorite, yet because of its rarity and unusual process, the civet coffee was expensive even in colonial times.

Cultivars, blends, and tastes

Luwak coffee beans

Kopi luwak is a name for many specific cultivars and blends of arabica, robusta, liberica or other beans eaten by civets, hence the taste can vary greatly. Nonetheless, kopi luwak coffees have a shared aroma profile and flavor characteristics, along with their lack of bitterness.

Kopi luwak has a thick texture, and tastes vary depending on roasting levels. Usually, levels range from cinnamon color to medium, with little or no carmelization of sugars within the beans as happens with heavy roasting. Moreover, kopi luwaks which have very smooth profiles are most often given a lighter roast, though at first taste it can seem a bit strong in flavor. Iced kopi luwak brews may bring out some flavors not found in other coffees. Other berries eaten by civets can give kopi luwak a pungent, sometimes bitter taste, though it varies depending on the diet of the civet.

Sumatra is the world's largest regional producer of kopi luwak. Sumatran civet coffee beans are mostly an early arabica variety cultivated in the Indonesian archipelago since the seventeenth century. The major Sumatran kopi luwak production area is in Lampung, Bengkulu and Aceh especially the Gayo region, Takengon. Tagalog cafe alamid (or alamid cafe) comes from civets fed on a mixture of coffee beans and is sold in the Batangas region along with gift shops near airports in the Philippines.

Production

An Asian Palm Civet

Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee. Luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet in Sumatra. Palm civets are primarily frugivorous, feeding on berries and pulpy fruits such as figs and palms. Civets also eat small vertebrates, insects, ripe fruits and seeds.

Early production began when beans were gathered in the wild from where a civet would defecate as a means to mark its territory. On farms, civets are either caged or allowed to roam within defined boundaries.

Coffee cherries are eaten by a civet for their fruit pulp. After spending about a day and a half in the civet's digestive tract the beans are then defecated in clumps, having kept their shape and still covered with some of the fleshy berry's inner layers. They are gathered, thoroughly washed, sun dried and given only a light roast so as to keep the many intertwined flavors and lack of bitterness yielded inside the civet.

Research

Defecated luwak coffee berries, East Java

Several studies have examined the process in which the animal's stomach acids and enzymes digest the beans' covering and ferment the beans. Research by food scientist Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed that the civet's endogenous digestive secretions seep into the beans. These secretions carry proteolytic enzymes which break down the beans' proteins, yielding shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Since the flavor of coffee owes much to its proteins, there is a hypothesis that this shift in the numbers and kinds of proteins in beans after being swallowed by civets brings forth their unique flavor. The proteins are also involved in non-enzymatic Maillard browning reactions brought about later by roasting. Moreover, while inside a civet the beans begin to germinate by malting which also lowers their bitterness.

At the outset of his research Marcone doubted the safety of kopi luwak. However, he found that after the thorough washing, levels of harmful organisms were insignificant. Roasting at high temperature has been cited as making the beans safer after washing.

Civet coffee imitation

Research into the palm civet's digestive processes and the transformation of the beans' proteins has led to the discovery of innovative ways to imitate the taste of kopi luwak without the civet's involvement. This in response to the decrease in civet population, caused by hunting it for its meat. Kopi luwak production involves a great deal of labor, whether farmed or wild-gathered. The small production quantity and the labor involved in production contribute to the coffee's high cost. The high price of kopi luwak is another factor that drives the search for a way to produce kopi luwak in large quantities, lowering the cost.

The University of Florida has developed a way to recreate how nature produces Kopi Luwak without the involvement of any animals. This technology has been licensed to a Gainesville Florida firm, Coffee Primero, which now produces and distributes that product at a price competitive with ordinary quality coffees.

The Trung Nguyên Coffee Company in Vietnam, through its work in isolating the civet's digestive enzymes, has patented its own synthetic enzyme soak, which is used in its Legendee brand simulated kopi luwak coffee.

Price and availability

A window display in an upscale coffee shop showing Luwak Coffee in forms of defecated clumps (bottom), pre-roasted beans (left), and post-roasted beans (right).

Kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between US$100 and $600 per pound. The specialty Vietnamese weasel coffee, which is made by collecting coffee beans eaten by wild civets, is sold at $6,600 per kilogram ($3,000 per pound). Most customers are in Asia – especially Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Sources vary widely as to annual worldwide production. Some specialty coffee shops sell cups of brewed kopi luwak for US$35-$80.

Controversy

While some farms continue to collect wild civet excrement containing coffee beans, others have begun to cage animals and feed them a mixture of beans and fruit in order to increase yields.

Experts have argued that coffee produced by caged civets is of inferior quality, and some claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste.

Additionally, there is currently no accreditation process in many of the countries producing this product, making it difficult to determine the authenticity and enabling fake civet coffee beans to flood the market.

Finally, the sometimes inhumane treatment of the caged civet has led to a public outcry, and has led some to denounce the coffee altogether.

External links

• University of Guelph article on the effects of the digestive system on coffee beans
• USA Today article on civet coffee
• BBC Civet coffee selling well despite SARS
• cbc.ca article on "cat poop coffee"
• BBC report In the Philippines
• ABC News item and photo report
• From Civet Poop to Great Coffee – slideshow by Life magazine
• Foreign Correspondent – 11/09/2007: Sumatra – Extreme Coffee, ABC Australia television broadcast on Foreign Correspondent