I tasted the most expensive coffee in the world that's processed from an animal poop and I liked it.
Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. Last week, I was lucky to get the opportunity to visit Bali, Indonesia and taste the Luwak Coffee (the infamous poop coffee) in a place called Nagari. The country is absolutely amazing by the way. I was very skeptical about tasting the coffee at first and it was an obvious "No!" for me until I witnessed how the coffee was processed and sterilized. I finally convinced myself that it wasn't as bad as it sounded and tasted it. It tasted really good - a little stronger than a usual cup of coffee. So, let's take a walk through the process of making the world's most expensive coffee AKA Kopi Luwak.
It's the shit! Literally.
Who would have thought that the most expensive coffee would have to be shit-related? It's incredible. The coffee is processed from civet cat's poop. Yes, you read that right. It's all in the poop. Does it sound disgusting or gross? I felt the same until I saw the entire transformation of poop to coffee, right in front of my eyes. Trust me, it's not that bad, after all.
Which great animal is the provider of the poop?
The great animal is none other than a Civet Cat; also known as Luwaks in Indonesia. It's a nocturnal animal. It feeds mostly on coffee cherries. Sadly, most of these animals are caged for farming like the ones I got to witness. They look super-cute and adorable.
Transformation: From Poop to Coffee
This is how the Luwak poop looks like. Luwaks feed on coffee cherries and the coffee beans come out undigested. According to the girl serving us the coffee, the digestion process reduces the caffeine level of the coffee and makes it much more healthier - thus, very expensive.
The poop is then sterilized with boiling water to get the beans as shot in the picture above.
The coating on the beans is then peeled and sifted carefully such that the beans look whitish in color and quite dry.
The beans from the previous step are then sterilized again with boiling water giving them the coffee-look as captured in the picture above.
The beans sterilized coffee beans are then put in a mortar that's beaten until the beans are finely ground. She was busy with her work and was kind enough to let us take her picture in action.
After the grinding process, the beans look like regular coffee powder, perhaps a little darker in color.
They're then stored in the class jar labelled with the Luwak Coffee sticker with a hefty price tag on it.
This was the final cup of coffee. It had a strong aroma and a strong taste. It cost us 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah for the cup of coffee in the picture above; that's equivalent to $3.75.
All pictures were shot using a smartphone by me.
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