Words cannot describe how much I LOVE coffee. How can anyone not adore the luscious smell, the rich taste, and the smooth texture running down your tongue? Coffee is the source of energy, endurance, happiness, and…LIFE! (Do I sound addicted? Because I am.)
Well. Put this coffee lover on the island where the most expensive coffee in the world is made, and try to keep her away from getting her hands on a cup. Try…and fail.
Bali, Indonesia, is the home of Kopi Luwak, also known as “Civet Coffee,” named after the cat/mongoose looking animal found in tropical rainforests. A cup of luwak coffee is sold in America for $30 (that’s 10 Starbucks tall pikes), and $400 a pound! (That’s a plane ticket from NYC to SFO!)
WHY on Earth does this coffee cost an arm and a leg? Is it the taste? (It was good, but nothing spectacular…) Is it because its foreign quality? (Of course imported items will cost a little more, but hundreds more…?)
The high price tag, my friends, is due to the fact that kopi luwak beans come from a civet’s exit hole.
Yes. The most expensive coffee in the world is, quite literally, cat s**t.
Kopi Luwak
Civets eat red coffee cherries, so they make sure to pick the best of the best beans to eat. When the beans are being digested, their stomach enzymes break down the beans, and it undergoes fermentation. When the beans are passed through the digestive track, the beans are cleaned, and then brewed!
When my boyfriend and I took a tour of Bali in August 2013, we stopped by the Oka Agricultural Center to try their coffees and teas, and of course, a cup of kopi luwak (which was only $5!). The views of the coffee plantation were spectacular, the samples delicious, and the cat poop abundant.
What more could a traveling coffee lover ask for?
Me in Bali
I’ve been in Bali for 5 months and I have yet to try kopi Luwak! This time, I’ll make it happen! Before the end of this month!! 🙂