Civet Coffee - Most Expensive Coffee In The World

If you are a coffee lover then this coffee will definitely make your tastebuds tingle for excitement and joy. This coffee is well known in Indonesia as "Kopi Luwak" and it is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world with a price ranging from $70 to $100 for a cup.

What makes the price so expensive? You will definitely be surprised as to where it comes from too. Obtaining the coffee is no easy task as the seeds have to be taken from the droppings of civets or more known in the locals as "Luwak". Civet will eat the coffee beans, and digest them before coming out as droppings.

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The coffee beans that came out together with the dropping will first be cleaned before brewing into a delightful coffee. A civet is an animal with a long and furry tail and looks almost similar to a raccoon. This animal can be found mostly in southeast Asia and happens to be nocturnal in nature. Its primary food consists of fruits and seeds.

One of the favorite food of the civet will be coffee seeds. It is also picky when it comes to the coffee beans to consume and it will only eat the best one out there. From this, you will know that the coffee beans will have the best taste yet and since the coffee beans cannot be digested by the civet, they will come out in their original form.

Aside from that, the digestive enzyme inside the civet is believed to have changed the protein structure of the coffee beans making it less acidic, ultimately producing a coffee that is less acidic in nature as well as having a unique aroma and taste.

Producing Civet Coffee Commercially

To make the civet coffee, usually, the brewer will have to first find traces of dropping from a wild civet. The difficulty in finding a good amount of these coffee beans is what makes the price so expensive.

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Unfortunately for the civet, due to the high demand for civet coffee, there are people out there who breed these civets to make the civet coffee alone. The animals live in very small cages and are forced to eat the food that has been provided.

Reasons Why It Should Be Banned

Due to the rising demand for this type of coffee, the civet will live in a harsh environment. A group of researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and World Animal Protection has conducted an observation of the breeding centers of these animals and it was found that almost all of them were treated with cruelty.

The surrounding area was filled with dropping that are not cleaned properly and the small cages made it even harder for the civet to move around resulting in most of the civets being obese.

The civets were also only served the coffee beans alone for the sake of fulfilling the demands of the civet coffee. This matter is rather different compared to the civet living freely in the wild where they also consumed other things like insects and fruits instead of coffee alone.

The life of a civet living in tight cages and not having a balanced diet will harm their lifestyle making them feel more stressed and easily fall ill. The civet coffee beans that come from the civet that are kept in cages were said to have a lower grade compared to the ones that are found in the wild.

But since there is no guide differentiating the civet coffee coming from a farm and the wild makes it is difficult for this problem to be overcome since the demand will always be there.

One study has been conducted by the BBC in 2013 has made a shocking discovery. The civet coffee that is being sold in London and has a label stating that it was obtained from wild civets was found to have been produced by factories in Indonesia that kept the civets in cages.

Some shops sell the civet coffee claiming that it was sourced from the wild when instead it came from these tortured civets. If you were someone who has a concern about animals then paying a huge price for a cup of civet coffee is definitely not worth it.

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