Civet Coffee (Kopi Luwak)
Palm Civet Droppings
Two months ago when when I was at BR Hills, Narayana, the local tribal showed me these civet droppings just off the road. Normally coffee planters do not have issues with any animals, as none of them touch the coffee beans, except the common palm civet. The civet loves coffee berries and when it eats them, the civet only digests the fruit and the actually coffee bean, comes out in its droppings.
Civet Cat
Now follow this closely
People believe that these civets know how ripe these berries are and they always pick the berries which are just right. So it’s safe to assume that the coffee beans in those berries will be the best too. It is also believed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee’s flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. In many south asian countries, these civet droppings are collected, processed and are sold in International market. Since these dropping are rare to find, in the whole world, only 500 KGs of this coffee is produced every year, making it the “rarest” and the “costliest” coffee in the world. The processed coffee costs about $800/KG and unprocessed beans like the ones in this photo cost about $350/KG. In India, this coffee is produced only in BR Hills by a person named Ganesh, who leaves his coffee plantations for the Civets.
I still have these raw beans. Anyone want’s to try them ? 😉
do ppl who buy this coffee beans knw the origin?i wonder whether they will drink it of they did kal.
hehe The Queen of England offers this to all her special guests it seems 😉
That does it! I’m not going to accept any invitation from the Queen of England! :p
what would it take to keep a couple of pet civets?
And own a coffee plantation?
🙂
Now this makes me think twice before accpeting coffee;-)
i want!
I wouldnt mind trying the coffee made of civet shit !
As long as the shit is washed off !
Oh yeah of course did I forget to mention that ?
. On second thoughts I thought the beans were the shit. Or is it shit = shit + beans; Kind of confused. 
Im so happy im a Tea drinker. Not heard of any shit in it :P.
So you wouldn’t even turn up for my wedding with the Queen?
This is ‘good shit’ man 🙂
only the other day, i was thinking about the origin of the phrase
Okay dude… I’ll make *one* exception. But no Civent Crap Coffee!
thank you….my day is made :D!
Nice ! 🙂
-nerdy
She’s 80 years old. Are you trying to make a play for her money? 😉
Nice writeup 🙂
I saw this once on the Oprah show… This guy was talking about the different types of coffee in the world and wanted to share this rare coffee.. as he spoke slowly, Oprah was sipping this coffee.. and going hmmm.. the moment he mentioned about it being picked off the droppings.. the smile on her face literally shattered.. haha
And the same question was asked.. Do people actually buy this?
I’ve had Kopi Lowak when I was in Vietnam. I thought the taste was excellent. Much more subtle and nuanced than non-civet-digested coffee, IMO.
the English drink Tea no?
Kalyan regarding your gallery:
Could you also include some sort of chronological tagging [from point of view of inclusion into the gallery], so that we may know what are the latest pics included into the gallery.
Wow. I spoke to the chap who makes this here in India and he personally found no difference between regular coffee and civet coffee it seems. He thinks it mostly sells just coz of the rarety.
But I will try it out someday, when I get a chance 🙂
I tag my last trip pictures with the ‘Recent’ tag. So you should be able to see the last trip pics at http://kalyanvarma.net/photography/viewtags.php?tag=Recent
Also I have modified the gallery so that all the pics are sorted by most recent one. This is a quick fix, till I figure out a better way of doing this 🙂 Maybe a RSS feed.
Maybe I should get into this business 🙂
thanks 🙂
Going by the prices of the said coffee, I don’t think many people would actually offer one.
Could I…
Several thoughts occur to me:
Could I have about $150 dollars instead of the coffee beans?
Why don’t you auction it on E Bay?
I am thinking of putting my coffee beans through the local cat and seeing what happens….probably the cat will have to civet (see the vet)!
Filter coffee, instant coffee, shit coffee… I learn something new every day!
eeeeeeeewwwwwwwww! processed poop! ewwwwwww! you touched them?
i’m officially off coffee now.
JD rox
Priceless!!!
It is beans + shit. Yo Kalyan, I want a cup too!
Aha.. Figured it out. I was just looking at those drop down menus, that’s why.
As far as I’ve seen he’s touched tiger,leopard,porcupine,hare and wild boar poop!
yucky and amazing at the same time!
ok more grossness!
Yup I want to try 😉
CHON CAFE
Nice shit… but how about some weasels gastric juices, check out this coffee…
http://www.edible.com/htmlsite/prod_list.asp?prodID=232&catID=2
http://www.firebox.com/?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=616
Exotic brew
Exotic brew — Hindu’s Sunday magazine article on Ganesh and the civet coffee beans.
sold in San Mateo downtown California
Kalyan,
nice article. i heard of this being sold at a coffee place in San Mateo California. told to many of my friends abt this recently and ur article helps to explain it more. i will circulate ur article to all of my friends as proof. lol.
thanks
Niranjan
chivet coffee
hi do u really hve the so called exotic coffee beans vit u??? im actualy plannin 2 do a project on chivet cats… so if i could know whr i would get a few beans i would b grateful to u….plz reply …ma id deepthi_drp@yahoo.com
in Reply.
— I still have these raw beans. Anyone want’s to try them ? 😉
Will you pickup my droppings and make it as coffee? Then tell me how does it taste and smell.
Probably, the best, rarest coffee in the world. Peace.
but i suppose u’ve already heard about the tea that the monkeys picked-up and collected by the locals on the forest floors afterwards. 🙂
Civet coffe
Is dis coffe available at coffeday,baristo. If u know pls let me know. mdevnath@gmail.com
I never gave you my virginity, so take my wedding night. Who took your virginity. Who. Your brothers.