Kopi luwak coffee : The kopi luwak is a coffee collected from the excrement of an Asian civet, the luwak (Scientific name : Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), a mammal of the family Viverridae with yellowish gray coat spotted with black. This small animal has almost no digestion.
The civet in fact consumes the cherries of the coffee tree, digesting their pulp but not their stone, which is found in its excrement (this method of natural dispersion of plants after intestinal transit is called " endozoochore").
In the luwak's digestive tract, gastric juices — composed of enzymes that break protein chains into smaller chains or individual amino acids — cause the coffee bean's flavors to undergo a beneficial transformation.
It is produced mainly in the Indonesian archipelago, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, the Philippines and East Timor. The kilogram is sometimes worth more than 1 US$.
History: The origin of kopi luwak is closely linked to that of coffee production in Indonesia. At the beginning of the 1830th century, the Dutch created coffee plantations in their East Indian colonies of Java and Sumatra, particularly Arabica from Yemen. At the time of the Cultuurstelsel (1870—XNUMX), they prohibited native farmers and their employees from picking coffee for their own use. Eager to nevertheless taste the famous beverage, they discovered that certain species of musang or luwak (common palm civet) consumed the fruits of coffee trees and rejected the seeds in their excrement. They consumed these cleaned, roasted and ground. The reputation of this civet coffee soon reached the plantation owners, who made it their favorite. It was expensive, even at that time, due to its rarity and the manufacturing process.
Production: Kopi is the Indonesian name for coffee. Luwak is a local name for the palm civet common in Sumatra and Johor (Malaysia). Palm civets are mainly frugivorous: they feed on berries and fleshy fruits like those of certain Ficus and palm trees. They also eat small vertebrates, insects, ripe fruits and seeds.
Production began by collecting from nature the excrement with which the civets mark the limits of their territories. Today it takes place on farms, where the civets are either in cages or in enclosures.
Civet cats eat coffee “cherries” for their pulp. After about a day and a half in their digestive tract, the seeds are rejected in clusters, still hard and still covered with part of the inner coverings of the fruit. They are harvested, carefully washed and dried in the sun, before being lightly roasted so as to preserve their complex aromas and the absence of bitterness gained inside the civet.
Misha coffee, which has a similar manufacturing process, is digested by a variety of Coati (Nasua nasua) in Peru. Other coffees using the digestion of certain animals also exist, including Black Ivory, a Thai elephant coffee, and Jacu Bird, involving a variety of birds in Brazil.
Cultivars, blends and taste: Under the name kopi luwak, there are many cultivars and blends of Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, Excelsa and others consumed by civets, and their taste is therefore very variable. However, all kopi luwak have the same aromatic profile and a common absence of bitterness.
Their roast is light, with a color varying from cinnamon to medium, with very little or no caramelization of sugars, unlike heavily roasted seeds. The kopi luwak with the mildest profiles are also generally less roasted. Kopi luwak blends for iced coffee can reveal flavors not found in other coffees.
Sumatra is the largest producer of kopi luwak, mainly from a variety of Arabica grown in the Indonesian archipelago since the 17th century. Tagalog kape alamid is produced by civets fed a seed mixture and sold in Batangas province and airport gift shops in the Philippines.
Massimo Marcone of the University of Guelph in Ontario has shown that secretions from the civet digestive tract seep into the seeds. They contain proteolytic enzymes that break certain proteins into peptides or free amino acids. The flavor of coffee owes much to its proteins, and it is therefore assumed that this change in their type and number in the seeds swallowed by civets is responsible for the unique scent of kopi luwak. Proteins are also involved in the Maillard reactions that occur during roasting. In addition, in the civet, the seeds begin to germinate: this malting also reduces their bitterness.
At the beginning of his research, Marcone doubted the safety of kopi luwak. However, he discovered that after a good wash, the level of pathogenic organisms is insignificant. Roasting at high temperatures probably helps make the seeds safer after washing.
Kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between US$100 and US$600 per pound. Vietnamese skunk coffee, made from seeds rejected by wild civet cats, sells for $6 per kilogram. Kopi luwak is sold mainly in Japan and the United States and served by the cup in cafes in Southeast Asia. The assessment of global production varies considerably depending on the sources.
In November 2006 Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms, a small cafe in the hills above Townsville, Queensland, put kopi luwak on its menu at A$50 a cup, selling an average of seven cups a week, which attracted the attention of the Australian and international press. In April 2008, the Peter Jones department store brewery in Sloane Square (London) began selling a blend of kopi luwak and Jamaica Blue Mountain under the name Caffe Raro for £50 a cup. In the center of Milan, Pecks sells a small espresso for 8 euros.
– Imitations: Some cafes try to imitate the taste of kopi luwak, in part because of declining populations of civet cats, which are hunted for their meat. Kopi luwak production requires a lot of labor, whether wild or farmed, which contributes to its high cost and prompts research to increase productivity.
A University of Guelph study looked at the process by which the civet's stomach acids and its enzymes digest the seed coat and attack the seed itself. The University of Florida has developed a way to mimic the natural production of kopi luwak without the intervention of any animals. Its license was sold to a Gainesville company, “Coffee Primero,” which produces and distributes this imitation at a price competitive with regular quality coffees.
- Popular culture: Kopi luwak is the coffee adored by Edward Cole, played by Jack Nicholson, in the film Without further ado (2007), before Carter Chambers, played by Morgan Freeman, revealed its specific nature to him.
In the first episode of the Quebec series Les Bobos, the characters of Étienne and Sandrine Maxou ask, in a café: "Do you have Kopi Luwak, the most refined coffee in the world whose beans are shitted by a marmot?" — It's $600 per kilo, but it's worth it! ".
French singer Pascal Obispo said he chewed kopi luwak grains directly, thus further appreciating the “animal” and “roasted” taste of the seed. He will also refer to it in his song “A tout prize” with the phrase “how could I resist it?” »
Buy your kopî luwak coffee here at the best price on the market:
Note: By clicking on the images below, you are redirected to the Amazon site and in case of purchase our site will receive a small commission. If this is not a problem for you, it will contribute to the improvement and sustainability of this site. Also, we thank you very much.