Photos: 1) Civet; 2) Civet’s coffee bean breakfast; 3) Excreted beans 4) Let’s look at those a little more closely; 5) Ah, the perfect cup
Because coffee is near and dear to my husband’s heart, I recruited him to write a blog this Wednesday about kopi luwak (in Indonesian Bahasa that’s “coffee from a cat”). Kopi Luwak is all the rage in Asia and can run up to $30 a shot. My six-year-old daughter calls it “poop coffee,” but read on for another point of view. (EK)
Coffee is the start of my day – EVERY day. Part of this is caffeine addiction, but of equal importance is the coffee experience: the warm mug on a cold morning, the aroma of espresso brewing, the way all breakfast foods taste better when accompanied by a the earthy flavors of a fine aged Sumatra.
As a serious coffee drinker, I have always wanted to try the best coffee available in every place I have visited – the rarer, the better. I had not even heard of “civet” coffee until my first trip to Vietnam, for my honeymoon in 2001. Vietnamese coffee is already a treat, with each cup brewed from a single serve coffee maker right into a waiting cup, but on the menu at our hotel I noticed something truly special, coffee made from beans that had been eaten, digested and excreted by local civet cats, and then collected and ground locally in central Vietnam.
I did not sample the coffee on that trip as the idea of drinking digestively processed coffee was still a bit too adventurous for me, but the seed was planted and over the next few years, I noticed more and more often that civet coffee was discussed in coffee drinking circles as the best on earth.
Once I had decided that I wanted to try it, I had to find it – and afford it. True kopi luwak is quite rare and wasn’t until about a year ago that a friend of mine said it could be found at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong for those willing to pay $30 for a single espresso shot. Not wanting to let the experience pass me by a second time, my friend and I went and tried it, and I have to say, it was delicious. Whether it was worth $30 is a different story.
This last December, I was in Bali when I noticed that that several coffee plantations were offering kopi luwak. We visited one and not only sampled the coffee, but witnessed the entire coffee making process. Civet cats live in cages and are fed the beans, after which the excreted beans are collected and made into coffee. A cup of civet coffee here was only $5, much more reasonable, and still delicious.
The coffee aficionados of the world will likely point out that the coffee I had in Bali is not true lopi luwak, as the civets live in cages. It is true that the better civet coffees require finding the “processed” beans in the wild, after a civet cat has eaten and digested it. This coffee tastes better because the civets will choose only the best beans to eat, therefore producing a better coffee, while the caged civets are given no choice but to eat the beans put in front of them. The Four Seasons coffee was wild, and it did taste better.
It is still hard to find kopi luwak and I have never seen it in the US, but for people with a passion for coffee, I highly recommend it. Whether you get “wild” or “farm-raised”, that is the true test of your passion, and your wallet.
P.S. Civet cats are also found in China’s Guangdong province, where they are often featured on local menus. During the outbreak of the SARS in 2004, these cats were identified as the source of the virus. So if you do sample kopi luwak, make sure it is after the beans are roasted!
Read about other yummy food – and drink – stories here: http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wanderfood/