Kopi Luak or
Civet coffee is
coffeeCoffee is a brewed beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of "coffee cherries" that grow on trees in over 70 countries. It has been said that green coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world behind crude oil. Due to its...
made from
coffee berriesCoffea is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs or small trees, native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia. Seeds of several species are the source of the popular beverage coffee. After their outer hull is removed, the seeds are commonly called "beans"...
which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (
Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets. The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of
SumatraSumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world .-Etymology:Sumatra was known in ancient times by the Sanskrit...
, Java,
BaliBali is an Indonesian island located at the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island....
and
SulawesiSulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.- Etymology :...
in the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n Archipelago, in the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
(where the product is called
Motit Coffee in the Cordillera, or
Kape Alamid in
TagalogTagalog is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 22 million people.It is related to Austronesian languages such as Chamorro , Indonesian, Malay, Javanese and Paiwan , Cham , and Tetum...
areas) and in
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
(locally called
kafé-laku). Local lore in
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
has given the name "weasel coffee" to civet coffee, in what is considered the closest recognizable translation to English.
Origin and production
Kopi is the
IndonesianIndonesian is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Classical Malay of the Riau-Johor Sultanate. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the...
word for coffee, and
luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet.
The common palm civet is normally found in Ceylon,
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Brunei Darussalam,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
,
MyanmarBurma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the...
(Burma), and Southern
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, south to Sumatra and Java, east to the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, Borneo, Celebes and the Lesser Sunda Island. In
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
, the common palm civets are wild-spread on the mainland, in
LangkawiLangkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of 99 islands in the Andaman Sea,...
, Pulau Pinang, and Pulau Tioman. Palm civets are primarily frugivorous, feeding on berries and pulpy fruits, including those of
FicusFicus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The so-called Common Fig Ficus ...
trees and plams. They also eat small vertebrates,
insectInsects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
s, ripe fruits and seeds.. In the Philippines a second species of palm civet, the endangered
Paradoxorus philippinensis occurs; this species is currently aided and protected by the cultivation of civet coffee.
Civets are often casually referred to as "cats" or "weasels" (Vietnam typically) but they are not in the cat or weasel family, but in the family
Viverridae, along with the similar
genetsGenets are Old World carnivores of the family Viverridae, related to civets and linsangs. All species are contained within the genus Genetta, although the Aquatic Genet, is sometimes housed in its own genus Osbornictis....
and linsangs.
Civets consume the red coffee cherries, when available, containing the fruit and seed, and they tend to pick the ripest and sweetest fruit. Thus there is a natural selection for the ripest coffee beans. The inner bean of the berry is not digested, but a unique combination of
enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
s in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the
proteinProteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and folded into a globular form. The amino acids in a polymer chain are joined together by the peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues...
s that give coffee its bitter taste. The beans are defecated, still covered in some inner layers of the berry. The beans are washed, and given only a light roast so as to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. Light roasting is considered particularly desirable in coffees that do not exhibit bitterness, and the most pronounced characteristic of Kopi Luwak is a marked reduction in bitterness.
In early days, the beans would be collected in the wild from a "latrine," or a specific place where the civet would defecate as a means to mark its territory, and these latrines would be a predictable place for local gatherers to find the beans. More commonly today, civet farms allow civets to roam within defined boundaries, and the
fecesFeces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus during defecation.-Etymology:...
produced are then processed and the coffee beans offered for sale.
(See reference picture at right)
Many consumers question whether civet coffee is safe and sanitary, and whether it contains
E. coliEscherichia coli , is a Gram negative bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E...
bacteria. The civet is not known as a carrier of
E. coli or other bacteria potentially dangerous to humans, and there is no public record of any illness conveyed by civet coffee. It is professed by producers that the enzymes in the digestive tract, as well as the rigorous washing and sun drying of the beans, help to eliminate bacteria, along with the high temperature roasting process, and that the coffee is entirely safe.
Economics
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $100 and $600
USDThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
per pound, and is sold mainly in
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by weight, and served in coffeehouses in Southeast Asia by the cup. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited; only at most make it into the world market each year.
Examples of selling by the cup:
One small cafe, the
Heritage Tea RoomsThe Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms are an historical cafe and a self-contained holiday cabin located at the top of Herveys Range, approximately 45 km north-west of Townsville in North Queensland, Australia. They are owned by Allan and Michelle Sharpe...
, in the hills outside
TownsvilleTownsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. Adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland. Townsville is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast, with a 2006 census...
in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, has Kopi Luak coffee on the menu at
A$The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
50.00 (=US$33.00) per cup, selling approximately seven cups a week, which has gained nationwide Australian and international press, creating over $5 Million AUD of media attention for this rare coffee. In April 2008, the brasserie of Peter Jones department store in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
's
Sloane SquareSloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the fashionable London districts of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross. The square is part of the Hans Town area designed in 1771 by Henry Holland Snr. and Henry Holland Jnr...
started selling a blend of Kopi Luak peanut and
Blue MountainJamaican Blue Mountain Coffee or Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is a classification of coffee grown in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. The best lots of Blue Mountain coffee are noted for their mild flavour and lack of bitterness. Over the last several decades, this coffee has developed a reputation...
called Caffe Raro for £50 (=US$99.00) a cup. It has also recently become available at
SelfridgesSelfridges is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909...
, London, as part of their "Edible" range of exotic foods and beverages. The coffee may also be bought by the cup or as beans at The Funnel Mill in Santa Monica,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. It is also available in
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Examples of export by weight:
Sumatra is the world's largest regional producer. Sumatran civet coffees are mostly
ArabicaCoffea arabica is a species of coffee indigenous to Ethiopia and Yemen. It is also known as the "coffee shrub of Arabia", "mountain coffee" or "arabica coffee". Coffea arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, being grown in southwest Arabia for well over 1,000 years...
. The Arabica Typica variety is an early type cultivated in the Indonesian archipelago since the seventeenth century, and this variety often forms the basis of the civet’s diet. Some producers, for example IndoCivetCoffee, offer mixed
RobustaCoffea canephora is a species of coffee which has its origins in western Africa. It is grown mostly in Africa and Brazil, where it is often called Conillon. It is also grown in Southeast Asia where French colonists introduced it in the late 19th century...
and Arabica blends, or 100% Arabica unique to the others. Paradise Coffee is one producer that offers several coffees produced by different species of beans.. Indonesian civet coffees are often found throughout Southeast Asia and have some outlets in the USA..
The endangered Philippine civet
(Paradoxorus philippinensis) often dines on a endangered coffee species,
Coffea liberica. Government and private foundations have sought to preserve the Liberica species through initiatives in the Batangas region to encourage more Liberica production, so the cultivation of civet coffee has had benefits for the civet population and the recultivation of Liberica coffee.
Cafe Alamid or Alamid Cafe (Tagalog, trans: Civet Coffee) is typically fed on a mixture of coffee species and varieties including Arabica, Liberica and Excelsa. This produces a different flavor profile from many other civet coffees, but the typical characteristics of low acidity, smoothness and high aroma are present. Cafe Alamid can be found in the Batangas region and often at gift shops near airports in the Philippines.
Civets found throughout other regions in Southeast Asia are often used in Kopi Luak production but most suppliers are small and serve local markets. Civet coffee is a popular drink in coffeehouses in Vietnam, and several prominent coffee producers such as Trung Nguyen produce simulated civet coffee. Trung Nguyen uses a patented process arrived at through research by German scientists hired to find an enzyme soak equivalent to the natural civet processing. The company produces a coffee called Legendee which is the best-known civet simulation in that region and is a popular drink at the company’s coffee houses. This outlet is a common introduction to the concept of Kopi Luwak coffee for tourists in Southeast Asia.
Many other simulations do not rely on an enzyme soak but choose beans of exceptional quality and added flavorings to attempt to duplicate the typical flavor profile of Kopi Luwak.
Research
At any given point during a harvest, some coffee berries are not quite ripe or overripe, while others are just right. The palm civet evolved as an omnivore that naturally eats fruit and passes undigested material as a natural link to disperse seeds in a forest ecosystem. Where coffee plants have been introduced into their habitat, civets only forage on the most ripe berries, digest the fleshy outer layer, and later excrete the seeds eventually used for human consumption. Thus, when the fruit is at its peak, the seeds (or beans) within are equally so, with the expectation that this will come through in the taste of the brewed coffee. The civet, by selecting the most flavorful beans, creates problems for the typical farmer, who often finds a significant portion of his best cherries missing in the morning after civets have been feeding. This led to a persecution of the civets, who in many regions became in danger of extinction. It is also possible that the quality of the civet coffee is somewhat reflective of the civet's natural ability to patiently select the best of the crop for consumption. Attempting to recover the lost crop led farmers to gather the civet droppings and try to reclaim them, resulting in the discovery that the droppings produced an exceptional coffee with unusual taste and lack of bitterness.
As this may be true for the beans derived from wild-collected civet feces, farm-raised civets are possibly fed beans of varying quality and ripeness, so it is possible the taste of farm-raised beans could be different.
Further research by Dr. Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) has shown that the civet's endogenous digestive secretions actually penetrate the beans. These secretions contain proteolytic enzymes which 'digest' the proteins thereby producing more smaller peptides and more free amino acids when compared to the control beans (beans not having been digested by the civet). These smaller peptides and proteins are known to be involved in Maillard browning reactions (non-enzymatic) upon roasting which is essentially exposure to high heat. As proteins are partially responsible for coffee's flavor, it is hypothesized that the change in the number and type of proteins in the civet beans contribute to the unique flavor.
Verification of this theory was performed in Vietnam in 1996 by a team of German scientists contracted by Trung Nguyen Coffee Company to study the changes that take place during the coffee beans' processing through the civet digestive tract. An analysis was performed and six specific enzymes were isolated, and a synthetic process using these enzymes was developed to simulate the natural effect.
A common misconception of Kopi Luwak coffee is that it is a specific coffee type. However, it is actually many different types of coffee that have been through a specific process that results in taste and body similarities. All Kopi Luwak does not taste identical, because civets may dine on any variety of Arabica, Robusta or other species of beans in the environment, and the bean variety greatly affects the underlying taste of the result. However, Kopi Luwak coffees share a similar aroma profile, lack of bitterness, and some flavor characteristics that gourmets of the coffee genre recognize among the many varieties.
Kopi Luwak is widely regarded as the "world's most expensive coffee". Is it the world's best coffee? Taste is subjective, and the different production modes of Kopi Luwak around the world bring varying results. While the effect of the taste on the consumer is subjective, certain objective observations can be made. Typically, coffees of exceptionally smooth profile are given a lighter roast, because they will not exhibit a "raw" or bitter taste from light roasting. Most Kopi Luwak roast levels approximate Cinnamon (named for color, not taste) to Medium roast. Therefore, Kopi Luwak may not appeal to an aficionado of heavy roast coffee, if the taste elements enjoyed by the consumer include the changes in bean taste that result from the caramelization of sugars within the beans that occurs at high temperatures.
Typically gourmets of coffee agree, however, that the exceptional aroma and "high notes" of Kopi Luwak are unique, that the lack of bitterness is highly desirable, and some elusive and highly pleasing tastes of coffee (one of the most chemically complex foods in the world) are released through the enzyme process and cannot be duplicated any other way. Icing the brew also seems to bring out some flavors that cannot be found in other coffee processes.
Similar coffees
Kopi Muncak (also
Kopi Muntjak) is a similar type of coffee produced from the feces of several species of barking deer, or
MuntjacMuntjac, also known as Barking Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15-35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France and Germany.-Description:...
, that are found throughout
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
. Unlike civet or "weasel" coffee, this type is usually not produced from captive deer and most commonly collected in the wild, especially in
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
and in the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n Archipelago.
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