Civet Cat Coffee

Kopi is Indonesian Coffee at its finest   by Vikram Kuamr

Beautiful, lush Indonesia, a nation composed of dozens of islands, stands as the world’s third largest coffee producer. Part of the secret to this tropical nation’s success can be found in a delicacy known as kopi luwak.

Indonesia has grown coffee – “kopi” in its native language — for generations. The country is particularly hospitable to the Robusta variety of coffee beans, which along with Arabica beans are the only two Types Of Coffee in the world.

Everyday Indonesian coffee, with its vigor and bitterness like much of Southeast Asian coffee, can be a strong surprise to the palates of average coffee drinkers. Robusta trees are called “robust” for a reason. They evolved to grow in warm sea-level climates such as Indonesia, while their more delicate sibling Arabica needs cooler, higher environments to thrive.

However, while those expecting their usual morning cup may disdain such kopi, coffee connoisseurs prize Indonesian Coffee both for its strength and for a version that results from a unique process: kopi luwak.

Kopi luwak isn’t a new kind of bean, but a Specialty Coffee that derives from an extraordinary natural partnership between Robusta beans and an animal known as the Asian palm civet. Robusta trees’ bright red coffee cherries are among the civets’ favorite foods. The animals, which resemble cats or weasels but are in fact a distinct species, invariably choose the ripest, tastiest cherries for their dinner (or breakfast or lunch, for that matter!).

At one time the civets’ love of coffee cherries was thought to be a disaster for Indonesian Coffee. Desperate to rescue their crops, the farmers raked through the wild civets’ droppings and harvested the undigested coffee beans. Washing the beans thoroughly, then drying them in the sun, the farmers gave the “civet treated” beans the kind of light roasting that works best for Robusta beans to tone down their bitterness.

Imagine the farmers’ surprise when the kopi brewed from these beans produced an aromatic brew with an enticing smoothness and flavor unlike anything they’d ever had before!

It wasn’t until years later that the enterprising Indonesian farmers learned the reason that “kopi luwak” or “Civet Coffee,” as it came be to called, was so delicious. It seems that civets can’t digest coffee beans; nonetheless the animals’ unique digestive enzymes break down the proteins that make coffee bitter. So when the civets eat coffee cherries and then excrete the undigested beans, the little animals are actually functioning as individual coffee processing plants!

Now wise to this extraordinary process, Indonesian Coffee growers have adapted their farms to include their own civet populations. This makes it easier to harvest the seeds from the civets’ deposits and assure a level supply of kopi luwak. The farmers still wash the beans thoroughly and dry them in the sun before roasting. These steps in the process eliminate any bacteria that may have collected on the beans, although history has shown that no human has ever caught an illness from this kind of kopi.

Even though the process is now understood and managed, each harvest of kopi luwak produces its own distinctive version, thanks to the different varieties of foods consumed by the civets in addition to coffee cherries. Combined with careful light roasting at high temperature, these natural variations give each batch of kopi luwak a unique quality. What remain consistent in this extraordinary version of Indonesian Coffee are the characteristics that make kopi luwak the world’s most expensive coffee: an aroma and smooth taste unmatched by any other coffee anywhere in the world.

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