From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kopi Luwak (pronounced [ˈkopi ˈluwak]) or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, and in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee which are coffee berries which have been defecated by local weasels. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet.

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and United States. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited: only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year (Pg 23, The Gospel According to Starbucks; Sweet). One small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 per cup. The locals line up for it, and it has gained nationwide press.
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A hypothesis to justify this coffee's reputation proposes that the beans are of superior quality before they are even ingested; though this is not to say that the digestive enzymes play no role. At any given point during a harvest, some coffee berries are not quite- or over-ripe, while others are just right. The palm civet evolved as an omnivore that naturally eats fruit and passes undigested material as a natural link to disperse seeds in a forest ecosystem. Where coffee plants have been introduced into their habitat, civets forage on the most ripe berries, digest fleshy outer layer, and later excrete the seeds eventually used for human consumption. Thus, when the fruit is at its peak, the seeds (or beans) within are equally so, with the expectation that this will come through in the taste of a freshly-brewed cup. As this may be true for the beans derived from wild-collected civet feces, farm raised civets are likely fed beans of varying quality and ripeness, so one would expect the taste of farm-raised beans to be less.

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Coffee Facts

The New York Stock Exchange started out as a coffee house.

It takes five years for a coffee tree to reach maturity.

On East Coast U.S. flights "regular" coffee is with milk and sugar; on the West Coast, "regular" coffee is black.

Coffee is not successful at sobering up a drunk person.

Filter coffee contains 65 to 120 milligrams of caffeine.

Brewed tea has an average of 40 mg of caffeine per serving.

A can of cola has between 38-45mg of caffeine.

An ounce of dark chocolate has 20mg of caffeine and an ounce of milk chocolate 6mg.

Over the course of one year, a coffee tree produces 1.5 pounds of coffee.

Instant coffee contains 60 to 85 milligrams of caffeine.

The rarest coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak, which is found in Indonesia.

Coffee beans were chewed for more than 400 years before the first cup of coffee was brewed.

Coffee was imported into Europe for the first time in 1517.

Coffee beans are not beans, but the pits of a fruit that resemble beans.

The bubbles in coffee can tell you what the day’s weather will be.

In Turkey, in the sixteenth century, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death.

Coffee is the second most traded product in the world after petroleum.

Seniors who drink regular coffee before a memory test score higher than those who drink decaffeinated.

Coffea arabica accounts for about 70% of world coffee production.
Brazil, is responsible for 30 to 40 % of total coffee output.

It takes 42 coffee beans to make an espresso.

Cappuccino is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.

97 percent of caffeine must be removed from coffee for it to be labeled "decaffeinated."

Maxwell House, is named after the hotel in Nashville Tennessee, where the original blend was served in 1886.

The Coffee Cantata was written by Johann Sebastian Bach.

A shot of espresso contains 30 to 50 milligrams of caffeine.