Kopi Luwak

This afternoon I “discovered” Kopi Luwak coffee beans. Without going into all the details the beans are the most expensive in the world. Only one thousand pounds of the beans are produced each year.

Here’s why:

The palm civet, a mongoose cousin, is a nocturnal, fruit-eater on the island of Sumatra. Civets love fresh, ripe coffee cherries. As these “cats” (Luwak is Indonesian for cat) digest the cherries the beans pass through their digestive track whole (are you getting the picture). Local harvesters find the beans in civet cat dung – wash them (thoroughly) and dry them in the sun. The result, Kopi (Indonesian for coffee) Luwak – a little more than $120/lb is a great price.

If Indonesian civets can transform coffee cherries into insanely expensive beans just imagine what the God who came up with palm civets in the first place, can do with you and me!