Million Dollar Droppings
The moon is on the rise over the dense Balinese jungle. The frogs’ nightly symphony of croaks and clicks is in full swing, but above it all, a scuffle can be heard in the branches of the coffee trees. There, a lithe, long-clawed creature scurries graciously across the branches, in search of his breakfast. But the real magic happens after dinner has been digested, excreted, and packaged as Kopi Luwak, the world’s costliest coffee in the world.
How costly? Hundreds of dollars a pound. And you thought Starbucks was expensive.
There, at the base of Mount Batur in Bali, Indonesia, lies Shanti Agro Tourisme, a jungle plantation that produces a variety of crops like cocoa, ginseng, lemongrass, spicy herbs, and the real money maker—Kopi Luwak.
Under the cover of night, the plantation’s resident luwaks—the animals also known as Asian Palm Civets—wake from their slumber and take to the trees to feast on coffee cherries, the bright red or purple fruits that grow on coffee trees. With the sunrise the following day, the farmers at Shanti Agro Tourisme follow hopefully in the luwak’s footsteps, scouring the ground for its feces. Their goal? As the Balinese say with a broad smile, “To make cat poo coffee!”
The luwak isn’t exactly a cat, but that seems to be the easiest way to describe it to tourists. A native to Southeast Asia, the luwak is a member of the Viverridae family, and looks something like a cross between a cat and weasel, with long, coarse hair and a thin body that weighs in anywhere between 4 to 11 pounds. Though luwaks also include insects and other tree fruits in their diet, the real magic happens when coffee cherries are on the menu.
Luwaks are known for their knack in choosing only the highest quality and ripest coffee berries, which, some argue, eventually mean the best tasting coffee. But not until after an interesting, and for some, distasteful process.
After enjoying the fleshy pulp of the berries, the seeds are swallowed, along with everything else, and remain intact as they are digested. The luwak’s digestive secretions are absorbed into the beans, triggering a chemical reaction that breaks down their proteins and frees up amino acids. This change in chemical composition is what will ultimately make the flavor of the coffee more mellow, smoother, and less bitter. A transformation majestic enough to give humans an excellent reason to not only mine the jungle floor for dung, but celebrate when they find it.
Once collected from the jungle floor, the beans are picked out of the dung, then thoroughly washed, dried by the sun, roasted, and slapped with a hefty price tag, before being sold almost exclusively to tourists.
As Tjok Sutadnyana, manager of the Bambu Indah hotel in nearby Ubud explains, not many Balinese natives can afford the coffee themselves. Nor is it easily found in the locals’ markets or shops, being relegated mainly to hotel gift shops or other stores that cater to travelers. “Tourists love it,” Sutadnyana says with a smile, underneath his colorful Balinese head scarf and fan. “It is something special to their experience in Bali, and most buy it as a souvenir.”
While coffee drinkers in Japan and South Korea have long enjoyed and imported Kopi Luwak, local Balinese merchants have Jack Nicholson to thank for a surge in American interest, at least in part. Sutadnyana explains that after the movie The Bucket List, in which Nicholson’s character drinks Kopi Luwak, the popularity of the beverage soared, and the prices followed suit. One cup of coffee can set you back $30 US dollars a cup at a plantation, and even more in town or at a cafe. Recently, some of Sutadnyana’s guests treated him to a cup of Kopi Luwak in town, which was a special treat, and, “Made me feel quite good. I had lots of energy to drive back to Ubud!”
Perhaps it’s that feel-good quality that makes Kopi Luwak so appealing, even on the complete opposite end of the world, in the heart of New York City, where you can still score a cup or a bag of beans—and for a small, fleeting window of time that’s long gone—at a staggering discount.
Kopi Luwak on sale at Jezelin's
In June of 2011, Jezalin’s, a gourmet food shop tucked into the back of the Limelight Marketplace, a converted church-turned-nightclub-turned-trendy-shop-haven, offered a Groupon for a cup of Kopi Luwak at a mere $10, a fraction of its regular price of $30. Members of the social discount site snatched up the deal and slurped up the coffee, leaving mixed reviews on Yelp in their trail.While some people raved about it, others railed on it, declaring the price outrageous, and not worth the exorbitant price. Yet aside from the Groupon-ers, Jezalin’s owner Melissa Wilch claims that coffee connoisseurs still flock to her shop in search of the liquid gold, which they source from Indonesia, the biggest exporter of this low-production good.
Indonesia isn’t the only country in the export game, however, with producers in the Philippines, East Timor, and Vietnam, where it goes by different monikers, like motit coffee, kafé-laku, and cà phê Chồn, or “weasel coffee,” respectively. Some gourmet coffee purveyors even feel that the Kopi Luwak found outside of Indonesia can be of higher quality.
Just a mile south of Jezalin’s, in New York’s West Village, Porto Rico Importing Company, a fine coffee and tea shop, has been in business for over 100 years. Instead of selling the big-ticket beans from Indonesia, Porto Rico carries Civet Kalinga Alamid, the Phillippino version of Kopi Luwak.
As manager Mark Kasper explains, “In some Indonesian Kopi Luwak...the animals are kept caged and fed farmed coffee berries, which may have an effect on taste as the Civet is known for only picking ripe berries in nature. So wild Civets may eat better cherries as they select them themselves.”
Customers with deep enough pockets can purchase Kalinga Alamid online, or at any one of the five Porto Rico shops throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, but even if they visit the shop in person, they’ll have to wait at least two days to receive their purchase.
Porto Rico Coffee Company
Why the lag? Customization. Porto Rico imports their beans raw and unroasted, so that when customers place an order, they can specify whether they want their beans in a light, medium or dark roast. Kasperrecommends, “a light roast, or at least a medium roast if you only prefer darker roasts otherwise, since the darker the roast, the less you will taste the singular characteristics of any coffee bean.” And at $340 a pound, you’re going to want to taste every last drop of it.Yet no matter where your civet or luwak coffee comes from, or what you call it, when it comes to how to drink it, the opinion seems to be unanimous worldwide. Kasper, Wilch and Sutadnyana all insist that Kopi Luwak is best enjoyed black.
Indeed, milk, sugar, or even a cookie to accompany a cup of Kopi Luwak seems blasphemous, as the pricey cup of Joe really warrants your taste buds’ unadulterated attention. Aromatic and vaguely chocolatey, you’ll want to take in the smell of the coffee as you would a glass of wine’s bouquet, to prep your palette for the journey your mouth is about to embark on. Though the smell is pleasant and distinctive, it’s the taste that truly puts Kopi Luwak in a class of its own. Without a trace or hint of bitterness, and oh...there’s that hint of chocolate again, the smooth, sweet taste is unlike anything your tongue has likely tasted. Its complex character truly does put Kopi Luwak in a class of its own.
Yet in a time when almost the entire world is holding its breath in the face of a massive economic recession, is $30 too much to pay for a cup of coffee, no matter how exotic or tasty?
That all depends. What’s it worth to you? It’s no different than the everyday decision we make of what to eat for dinner. Would you care for some Wagyu Beef with shaved Italian White Alba Truffle and a $300 dollar bottle of Brunello di Montalcino? Or do you opt instead for an extra large Meat Lover’s, washed down with a six-pack of Milwaukee’s Best?
In both cases, the question remains the same: Is the experience worth the expense?
It’s a question that can only be answered by each person individually, when they ask themselves, “What does a cup of Kopi Luwak mean to me?” Is it just a cup of coffee you bought with an online coupon? Or is it a sweet, rich reminder of the day you first tasted it, in the dense jungle air, standing in the shadow of Mount Batur? Is it something on your own Bucket List? Do you even like coffee?
One thing that’s for certain is that Kopi Luwak is an interesting cup of coffee with one hell of a backstory. Perhaps the legend and lure of it is enough to worm its way into your curiosity. Perhaps not.
But if you do choose to start your day with a piping mug of this exotic brew, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be the only one in the office who started their day with a $30 “brew of poo.” So that’s something.
To try Kopi Luwak for yourself, go to portorico.com, where an 1/8th of a pound of Kalinga Alamid costs $50. Prices go up from there.
