Kopi Luwak
The Rarest Coffee in the World!

Those of you who have seen the movie "The Bucket List" will have heard about this coffee... but otherwise, unless you are a true coffee-connoisseur, perhaps not, since only about 300kg are produced per year for distribution globally!

It's a coffee-connoisseur's crown jewel.

Kopi Luwak is coffee made from coffee cherries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). You can see from the picture, he's a small little guy, so no wonder the production is limited! I don't know how many people realize it... you probably wouldn't unless you'd been to a coffee plantation where there were ripe fruits, but the coffee fruit itself is really delicious! The bean is encased in a thin layer of red flesh which has a sweet, slightly bitter, taste (no, it doesn't taste like coffee), and an almost grape-like texture.



After collected, the beans are processed hygienically, and given only a medium roast so as to not destroy the complex flavours that develop through the process.

This Kopi Luwak process takes place only on the islands of Bali, Sumatra, and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, where the Palm Civet lives. Producing no more than 300kg per year to be distributed throughout the world.

There was a sale on at Kopi Bali (a nice coffee shop in Sanur)... you could enjoy a pot of Kopi Luwak for only 200,000 Rp (approximately 20 CAD). We thought it was ridiculously expensive for Indonesia, but there was someone there who obviously didn't, and was savouring his indulgence. On our way out, I asked him how it was, and he replied "Well, it tastes like... (he paused dramatically)... coffee." I could have SWORN he was going to say 'it tastes like shit'!

On display was a 'gift set' of Kopi Luwak as well... you could purchase 100g of coffee, a small information booklet, and a preserved sample of Palm Civet scat (!?), all nicely packaged in a hand-carved wooden box, for the bargain-basement price of approximately 150 CAD!