Marilyn’s Blog

Kopi Luwak Coffee

Kopi Luwak is a rare and expensive coffee produced from Asian Palm Civet Feces

Yep…..

Luwaks are generally nocturnal and steal into the coffee plantation at night to feast on coffee cherries. Fruit forms a significant portion of a luwak’s diet so they are adept at selecting the ripest, juiciest cherries. This ability contributes to the final quality of kopi luwak; circumventing it by caging luwaks and feeding them coffee results in poorer quality kopi luwak.


It is also cruel, unethical, and displays a lack of compassion for the animals responsible for the livelihood of the people that do it.

The coffee cherries remain in the digestive tract of the luwaks for around twenty fours hours mixed with various other things the luwak has eaten. Raw kopi luwak often contains seeds and nuts as well as coffee beans.

During the digestive process the flesh of the cherries is removed leaving the seeds (the coffee beans) inside an inner skin, called the pergamino or parchment. The parchment is permeable allowing acids in the luwak’s stomach to soak the beans causing the destruction of some of the proteins in the coffee and altering their final taste.

Once the kopi luwak has been collected Animalcoffee breaks down the pieces into individual beans, discarding all the unwanted components and reducing the volume of the kopi luwak by a considerable amount. The beans remain in the dry, papery parchment which needs to be removed.

The beans are spread out on dark tarpaulin in the sun for a few days to dry the parchment and make it easier to remove.

http://animalcoffee.com/process.php