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It sounds like an urban myth of some sort. You can’t keep yourself
from laughing the first time you hear of it. As strange as it may
be, Kopi Luwak is not an urban myth but in fact one of the rarest
and most costly coffees in the world.
Kopi
Luwak gains it's legendary status from the way it is “processed”,
as opposed to its origin. There is a small cat-like animal called
the Palm
Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) found in Indonesia that reside
in the coffee trees. Civets were considered pests because they constantly
ate the ripe red coffee cherries of the trees. Just like the rest
of us, what Civets eat, Civets digest and excrete. One fine day some
rather bored locals gathered the expelled beans to find them still
intact and wrapped in their thin layers of cherry mucilage. We’re
not too sure how the story goes from this point but they decided to
roast these beans.
They found that the Civet’s stomach enzymes added
uniqueness to the flavor of the coffee. This process of natural fermentation
using stomach acids and enzymes has a different effect than the typical
fermentation with water. We personally have yet to try it, but those
that have, described it as having a heavy caramel taste, gamy flavor
and a musty and jungle-like aroma.
Because of this “process” it obviously takes
a long time to collect enough beans to roast. It can be found priced
upwards $300 a pound and seems to have become more of a novelty coffee.
If you do ever get a chance to taste it you just might be able to
appreciate its uniqueness and rarity. Or not. Either way, we’d
love to hear what you thought of it!
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