The Cost for 1 cup Kopi Luwak ranged from RM 70 – RM 300, which is easily 10 times than your usual coffee at any coffee house. And 100g of Luwak coffee bean does cost RM 450 onwards, it is 40 times more expensive than your usual retail pack you can get from your coffee supplies shop ! Why it worth so much when it is just a poop from a cat?
The first encounter for Luwak coffee was when Dutch introducing coffee farming in Indonesia, they forbidden the farmer from harvesting coffee bean for their own use which frustrated the farmer as they cannot enjoy even 1 cup of their harvest. But they discovered that Luwak consumed the coffee cherries, leave the coffee seed undigested in their droppings. Without hesitation, they gather the dropping, clean, roast, grind and brew it without going thru the usual process of the Dutch.
But why droppings from Luwak can yield a superior quality than the conventional production process of coffee? It is because Luwak only goes for the best and ripest coffee cherries. YES !! They are smart enough to find which are the best to consume! The beans spend up to a day and a half in the luwak’s digestive tract, where fermentation occurs, and the flavour profile of the beans is altered by the digestive enzymes.
With rise of curiosity, tourism, and the economic opportunity available in Luwak coffee. This became a “FARM” where it open for tourism to visit, and where they CAGED the Luwak, feeding them coffee cherries rather than allowing them to find the best and ripest coffee cherries. Therefore, instead of farmer going into the wild and search for the natural wild Luwak’s dropping, now they can reach their hand underneath the cage just like collecting eggs from the tray but selling at the price of gold.
They have no space to run and use the high amount of energy that was consumed from coffee cherries, hence they become depress, aggressive. Question will be where does this anger, depression energy goes and get out from their body? Is it transferred to the poops that roasted and make into your cup of coffee?
Up to now, there is no where we can tell whether the source of Luwak coffee is wild or farm. UTZ, another major sustainable coffee certification standard, also forbids caged wildlife on farms and will not certify any kopi luwak.
The balls come back to us as coffee drinker. Do we need to support this animal cruelty, inhumanity farming that encourage fake, unethical operation industries? Or we can choose to support our local community that’s thrive to provide best and freshest coffee bean to you with a reasonable price?
https://www.intrepidtravel.com/adventures/why-you-shouldnt-drink-luwak-coffee-in-indonesia/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160429-kopi-luwak-captive-civet-coffee-Indonesia/
https://coffeeordie.com/kopi-luwak/
Above are the adaptation and reference source from the internet