Dirty Little Secret of Crap Bean "KOPI LUWAK"

[CoffeeJunky]

When I was in "Coffee Con" last weekend, I had chance to meet people from Indonesia. One of them represent the farmers. He told me few things about the farm and I asked few questions.

His family runs pretty decent size farm and i asked how many pounds of coffee beans they can produce per weekly or monthly. He told me around 80-100 kilogram per week. Which means around 5000 kilograms a year. That would be maximum so I would say around 3000kg to 4000 would be more accurate. And there are several hundreds of growers in Indonesia. Most of the farmers are using Arabica beans from Sumatra region.

Here is the dirty secret.
For many years, there have been many farmers try to make Kopi Luwak and failed because of the time and work it takes to produce them.

SO many of them start making fakes.
That is the reason you see most of the Kopi Luwak are pre-roasted. They sell already roasted and ground beans.
They used to be able to tell the Kopi Luwak by colors. They are mainly yellow or brown Not Green.
So it was easy to tell from real to fake but now farmers found the way to manipulate the colors as well.

So most likely you if you buy "kopi luwak" you are either buying fake beans or they are mixed beans.
Or you will have to dish out close to 500 dollars per kilo and have to purchase much more then a kilo gram.

So I guess it will be very hard to find 100% "Kopi Luwak" unless you can visit the farm as part of the vacation package to have the real one.

 

[shadow745]

When will the madness end with these ridiculously priced crap coffees?!? There are literally hundreds of different coffees that can easily satisfy the most discerning palates. Consumers really should focus on finding a fantastic lower cost option rather than resorting to a costly pipe dream.

For those that really want crappy coffee for cheap just go to a Charbux or McDonalds... all you can drink SH#T for a fair price.

 

[PinkRose]

Do they feed the civet cats anything else besides coffee cherries?

It must cost a fortune to grow and maintain the coffee plants, feed and take care of the civet cats, and process the resulting coffee too.

It is maddness.....especially when people pay so much for the priviledge of drinking something exotic and wierd.

I wonder if there would really be much a difference in the taste of the coffee if the (exact same) coffee beans were processed the traditional way vs. the civit-cat way. Has anyone ever done a comparison taste test?

Rose

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I have done it last time i had chance to taste. They were sumatra coffee beans and it does taste very different. Kopi Luwak was much more mild in taste and brought out more flavor.

Madness is in full force. The farm is sold out of the beans for next 2 years and they are paying 750 per kilo. They are now putting vacation package together for coffee tour. Its going to cost around 3500 per person for 5 day tour. And each tourist will get 1/2 pound of freshly roasted Kopi Luwak and they are sold out of most of the tours this year. CRAZYYYYYYYYYYY

 

[farhan]

Hello ,
Greeting from Indonesia.
Yes the counterfeiters of coffee luwak /Civets Coffee are mostly done by Businessman ( They dont have coffee farm but they know how to sell the civets coffee with very expensive price to US and Europe ).
So, if you know the right farmers of Civet coffee producers then you would get the authentic/real civets coffee .
Recently scientist already has found the new method to distinguish the fake civets Coffee and the real one ( You can search in google for the method ).
If I may advice you :" you'd be better to purchase the green-beans civet coffee than the Roasted/ground coffee" .

Hope it would help a little and You can add or drink a Civets coffee on your healthy ritual coffee menu daily.

Best regards
Farhan.

 

[namballe]

Recently scientist already has found the new method to distinguish the fake civets Coffee and the real one

which will probably add more to the cost of this already expensive coffee.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Well, I think only way to purchase authentic Kopi Luwak is from the Indonesian government farm. They do have their own farm and their price is top of the list but you will definitely get the authentic stuff.

 

[BuzzRoaster]

Unfortunately, counterfeit Kopi Luwak is not the only "Dirty Little Secret" Indonesia is keeping. Civets are being trapped and captured, forced to live their lives in a tiny little cage under deplorable conditions. This article sums it up pretty nicely.