JAVA, Indonesia: Rare, exotic, $40 a cup - and brewed from cat's droppings. Would you like a cup of Luwak coffee?
Yet this evil-sounding brew is not quite what it seems. According to Fox News, 'kopi luwak' is made in Indonesia from coffee beans excreted by native palm civet cats (or luwaks).
Reputedly the world's rarest and most expensive coffee, partly-digested Luwak coffee beans are painstakingly extracted by hand from the cats' forest droppings. The excretions, resembling four-inch-long slabs of peanut brittle , are then dried and broken up, cleaned and roasted, the result looking not unlike regular coffee beans, according to The Age newspaper.
After processing, the resulting product sells for about $450 a pound and becomes an earthy, syrupy beverage considered by many coffee connoisseurs as one of the world's finest.
Not everyone is convinced, however - in Australia locals more commonly refer to it by another name.
"Everyone calls it cat-poo coffee," Australian cafe owner Michelle Sharpe told WTKR.
Sharpe said while many customers enjoy luwak coffee's rich caramel or chocolate flavour, others cannot stomach the idea. First-time customers receive a “certificate of experience” as a reward for their bravery, however others have told Sharpe that they wouldn't drink cat-poo coffee even if she paid them.
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“This is the kind of coffee you renounce your religion and sell your child for.” Anonymous taster
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According to Fox, it isn't known how cat excrement first became luwak coffee. The most popular theory is that harvesters realized that beans found in cat droppings in south-east Asian forests were easier to pick up from the ground floor than gather from the plants.
Grown in the Indonesian islands of Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra and also in parts of the Philippines, Vietnam and southern India, annual Luwak coffee world production is thought to only reach about 660 lb.
Why does it taste so good? The Age reports that digestive juices in the Luwak's stomach remove the bitterness found with some types of normally-processed coffees, leading to a "99 per cent" approval rating.
"It's as good as my private life is bad. This is the kind of coffee you renounce your religion and sell your child for," one taster told WTKR.
I would normally go for hazelnut, though. Is it available at Starbucks yet? =)
Imagine being the guys whose job it is to collect the beans, rifling through mounds of cat feces everyday for a couple of beans... that would have to be up there with the world's worst jobs!!
There's probably a reason why it came out of a cat's rear end. I can't imagine those poor coffee harvesters going through civet droppings the whole day!
It's THAT good? OK...where can I get a cup?
As long as it doesn't really smell (or taste!) like cat-poo, I don't mind giving it a shot.
Erm...no, thank you. Appreciate the offer though.
Hold on now- has anyone in here actually tried some? Or at least know how to get hold of some? Just curious really :)
Uh, i absolutely love cats. but i wouldn't go as far as drinking cat poo coffee!! I'm happy with my Cappuccino, mind you.
I heard about this. I think it's common in the Philippines too, or maybe in Asian countries. A friend of mine travelled there and brought home that coffee. It smelled great and she said that it was excellent! but when she told me what it was, I didn't want to drink it! I keep imagining my cat's, you know... makes me sick to my stomach! lol
Okay here goes... I have a friend in the Philippines who SWEARS it's available in this quaint little coffee shop by a lake of some sorts. Of course getting people to buy some is an entirely different thing altogether- how do you market something that came out of an animal's ass?!
Wats nxt? dog-poo coffee? thnk god im done wid brkfast. drnkng coffee will nvr be the same agen.
I absolutely won't touch that thing even if you paid me. Are you kidding? Call it whatever you want but that's still cat-poop. I don't know about you, but at home we usually throw away those things not grind them to make coffee. Sounds like something straight out of Fear Factor.
i've tried it during one of my trips to indonesia. i was reluctant to taste it when they told me where it came from but the smell alone was worth it. the taste was even more worth it. it's clean and by the time they sell it there are no traces of the cat-poop anyway. i probably won't try it again -- because it's just too expensive for my taste. i'll just stick to folgers.
lol.. i always have close encounters with my cat's poo so i don't think im ever gonna like this one... lol..
no way will i try this! im not gonna drink anything that came out as poo of an animal even it they say its one of the world's best tasting coffee. i would be too grossed out with the idea.
ugh.. i know the smell of cat poop. whew!! to actually drink it?! you must be kidding me! hmmm... but if they say it's gourmet coffee? show me the money! pay me, i think i'd actually try it!
I tell ya - this is good stuff, fellas! damn good! c'mon, it did not come straight from the cat's bunghole and into the bottle! it was properly processed to make it edible. ok. that didn't sound right. lol! but really, the coffee was outstanding. for the price, heck it should be great!
hmmmmm....this sounds so intriguing. i wonder what it tastes like. i'm actually considering trying it out for myself. i don't really care if its cat poo. it should be good with a price tag.
if other people have tried it and said that it's very good, then i think i might be brave enough to try it myself. i don't really care where it came from, i'd like to try it at least once just to quench my curiosity.
certified coffee addict here. i'd love to give this a shot! just don't think that it came from a cat's ass. think other thoughts while sipping the coffee! lol! look, they wouldn't be selling it and it wouldn't have made it to the news if it weren't any good.