Masked Palm Civet (Image is in the public domain. Taken from WPClipart. https://www.wpclipart.com/animals/wild_cats/civet/Masked_Palm_Civet.png.html)
Would you go out of your way to eat someone else’s poop? If you posed this question to most people, chances are high that they would look at you like you’re crazy and shuffle away before they have to experience anything else that comes out of your mouth (and possibly other orifices). However, for many people from Indonesia and around the world, the most exquisite coffee comes from only one source; the digestive tract of the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).
The Producer:
Civets are not notorious caffeine hounds, and instead eat coffee cherries for the sweet fruit pulp. They are mostly solitary animals, and prefer to wander about for tasty cherries at night. Even though berries and fruits make up a large portion of the civet’s diet, they are actually omnivorous, eating little mammals and insects as well.
Civets were naturally found in South East Asia, especially in Indonesia where the practice of harvesting civet coffee started. Since then civets have been introduced to multiple islands in the region as far as Japan due to growing demands for the coffee.
The Process:
Kopi luwak, as it is known, is named after the Indonesian words for coffee kopi, and the civet, known locally as luwak.
Kopi luwak is made from Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, the two major cultivated coffee beans around the world. What makes kopi luwak special however is the addition of the biochemical reactions on the coffee bean as it passes through the civet’s digestive system.
The traditional method for the collection of these ‘processed’ beans involves collecting the feces of wild civets from piles at the edge of their territory called civetries. The partially undigested beans are then cleaned, further processed to remove undigested fleshy layers of berry, and roasted. These roasted beans can then be brewed into coffee normally.
Indonesian man holding kopi luwak beans before they have been cleaned or roasted. This is the product coming from the civet. (Image is in the public commons, from user HaztechGuy, Wikimedia Commons)
The Difference:
In order to understand the differences between kopi luwak and non-civet coffee, Dr. Massimo Marcone, a professor at the University of Guelph did multiple comparative analyses of the differences between kopi luwak and non-civet C. canephora harvested in the same region during the same time in 2002. Using a method called SDS-PAGE to identify proteins in the civet-coffee bean he found that the digestive juices in the gut of the civet had caused significant degradation of proteins in the coffee beans.
For more detail on SDS-PAGE please watch the short video above (3:16)
Proteins are long chains made up of amino acids, and digestion causes the links between subsequent amino acids to break up, allowing the heat from the roasting process to ‘hit’ more of the proteins in the coffee bean.
Marcone argues that the maillard browning reaction, on having access to more amino acids would have a significant impact on the aroma and flavour of the roasted beans.
The Cost:
Whether or not the change in flavour and aroma profile enhances the experience of drinking the coffee is up for debate between professional coffee tasters (called Q Graders). What isn’t up for debate is that the coffee can fetch prices of up to $600 CDN per lb. As a comparison, the price of silver is currently trading at about $280 CDN per lb.
Perhaps the more depressing cost however remains the cost on the welfare of the civets who are being caged in larger and larger numbers to keep up with the global demand for kopi luwak. These caged civets in many instances are force fed only coffee cherries (recall that civets are naturally omnivorous), and stored side by side in cramped battery cages.
Kopi luwak is a fascinating method of processing coffee coveted by many coffee connoisseurs around the world, but production has to take into account the tangible ecological costs of harvest.
Civet in a Battery Cage (Taken by user surtr, Flickr Commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, https://www.flickr.com/photos/29297680@N00/5609840328)
– Souvik Maiti
