The consumption of coffee can be traced back to around the 17th century, and it’s easily the most popular stimulant-beverage consumed by the masses in the world today. Coffee is produced around the world, and I’m sure many of you, like myself, drink at least one cup everyday. People go crazy when they can’t get their coffee fix, and the industry is absolutely massive. Coffee comes in all different forms and flavors, and like all things, there are many forms of “luxury” coffee. At any given coffee shop you can buy a cup for somewhere between $2 to $5 dollars. Purchasing beans is also fairly affordable as well. But what if you want the “best” coffee in the world? How much would you be willing to spend for a cup? Let’s take a quick look at one particular type of coffee, Kopi Luwak, which is often described as the most expensive coffee in the entire world.
Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a very particular form of coffee that’s produced in an extremely strange manner. The process all starts with the growing of the coffee cherries. The coffee is produced in Southeast Asia, primarily in Indonesia. Growers use only the purest and highest-quality seeds available to grow Coffea, the plants that produce the cherries. Once the cherries are fully developed, farmers then hand select the best ones from the batch. The next part of the process is kind of gross, so here’s a forewarning. Once the cherries are selected, they are then given to Asian palm civets, a small cat-like animal indigenous to the region. The civets main diet consists of extremely ripe coffee cherries, so the farms actually then feed the animals these fruits. The civets then digest the cherries, and a unique chemical process occurs in their stomach. The pulp of the cherry is broken down and removed, but the coffee bean remains undigested. Whilst they are digesting, a kind of fermentation process that is not entirely understood takes place, which gives the coffee it’s unique taste. So as you have probably guested by now, farms then have to collect the feces from these animals that contain the beans. That’s right, the most expensive coffee in the world comes from the excrement of a small mammal. After the feces are collected by farms, the beans are then washed, cleaned, dried, and then roasted before they are shipped off across the world.
So just how expensive is this coffee you ask? Well the prices fluctuate depending on the demand, sort of like the price of gold. For many, these coffee beans are pretty much gold given how expensive it is. A cup of coffee made with Kopi Luwak can range anywhere between $35 to $100 dollars, depending on the shop. A pound of these beans can easily cost over $600 dollars, which is quite a lot when a pound of regular coffee can cost between $3 to $10 dollars. Kopi Luwak is also produce in an extremely limited amount. On average, somewhere between 500 to 1,000 pounds of this coffee are produced each year. To give you some perspective, about 1.8 million tons of Brazilian green coffee is produced each year.
So not only is this coffee produced in small amounts, the method used to produce the coffee is also “different” to say the least. “True” Kopi Luwak is made from the feces of wild civets, so farmers have to search around the jungles to find them. But given how alluring it is to make this coffee, there are many farms that capture these animals and keep them in cages, which then raise many ethical concerns. Wild civets only eat the best coffee cherries available, while caged civets are fed whatever beans farmers have. Additionally, you have to be very aware of your source should you want to buy these beans. Some growers will “cut” their Kopi Luwak with regular beans or other ingredients, and then sell the product as if it were 100% pure.
Still, Kopi Luwak isn’t just expensive due to its limited quantity or the unique production method. As with all coffee, it’s the flavor that counts the most. I am told (sorry, I’ve never dropped $600 dollars on coffee personally), that Kopi Luwak is one of the best tasting coffees in the world, and has a very unique flavor. And you can only get that flavor after the beans have been partially digested by the civets. So if you want to try arguably the best coffee in the world, then you’re going to have to drop a lot of money on these beans that are collected from the feces of animals.
Photo by Nicky Loh/Getty Images for World Animal Protection, Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images
