The Student Newspaper of Highline College

Denys’s weekly wonders: StarDate 2/15/2024

Denys Matsyuk Staff Reporter Feb 15, 2024

If you love high-end coffee, I’ve got the most expensive and the highest quality brew you can get – it’s called Kopi Luwak. It has a complex flavor profile that is smooth, earthy, and sweet, with a hint of chocolate. Its unique fermentation process gives it a distinct flavor that cannot be replicated.

Indonesia is the largest producer of Kopi Luwak coffee. Only around 1100 –1540 lb (500–700 kg) of Kopi Luwak is produced annually. Kopi Luwak can cost up to a whopping $100 per cup or $600 per pound, which is $500 more per pound than uranium (uranium is cheaper than I thought).

The high price tag is due to limited supply and labor-intensive production. Some experts argue that the taste difference may not justify the cost. Despite controversies, Kopi Luwak remains a sought-after delicacy worldwide.

Now you’re wondering what this special press is that can’t be replicated, well buckle up, it is… feed coffee cherries (a small, round stone fruit that grows on the coffee plant) to an Asian palm civet (also called a common palm civet, toddy cat, and musang) and let it be digested.

Once it poops it out, you collect it, dry it, and sell it. Yep, that’s it. The coffee is cat poop. Now you are probably wondering how this started? Well, it is purported to date back to the Dutch colonial era when native coffee plantation workers were forbidden to pick coffee for their own use. They discovered undigested beans in civet droppings and created their own brew method.

So would you give the fancy coffee a try?

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