What animal processes coffee. The most expensive coffee in the world is not Kopi Luwak! Why so expensive

Surprisingly, Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world. The first, of course, is Brazil: the unchanging homeland of both coffee and TV shows. Now Vietnam produces about 18% of all coffee in the world. And it all started, of course, with the French, who in 1857 first brought coffee beans to the territory of their colony.

In addition to the fact that there is a lot of coffee here, it is roasted in unusual ways (for example, with sweet syrups), thanks to which it acquires a unique sweet chocolate taste. And they serve coffee in any cafe: thick and fragrant, with ice and a glass of delicious green tea in addition. Coffee is the best.

Typical Vietnamese coffee shop: price for a cup of coffee - 12,000 VND ($ 0.5), green tea with ice - free

Ice coffee with condensed milk: an unforgettable taste!

There are two types of grains in Vietnam: robusta and arabica. Robusta is much more popular, you can often find blends based on robusta with a little addition of arabica. In Nha Trang, you can find many shops on the street where the coffee beans you choose will be ground right in front of you and sealed in a bag - in my opinion, a great gift for family and friends!

There are a great many such stores: choose grains (you can mix varieties in any proportions), and they are ground and sealed right in front of you

The most popular brand of coffee in Vietnam can be called Me Trang (read Mechang). Shops of this company are found in tourist Nha Trang on every corner. Mechang coffee is really tasty, but we didn’t notice much difference compared to little-known brands of coffee with.

The most famous coffee brand in Vietnam today is Me Trang

In addition to Robusta and Arabica coffee, such a variety of coffee as Luwak (or Luwak) is found everywhere in Vietnam. These are ordinary coffee beans that have passed through the gastrointestinal tract of one very cute furry animal.

What is this super trendy animal dung luwak coffee in Vietnam? How does it smell, and most importantly, how did people get to this point?

Who is a luwak animal

The official name of this cute babies is musangs or palm martens.

Curious

And infinitely cute

These animals simply adore ripe coffee berries. After they ingest the coffee cherries, the pulp surrounding the coffee beans themselves is digested in their stomach, and the beans are passed out unchanged during a bowel movement (sorry for such details). After that, people collect valuable cargo, wash it and dry it. We hasten to assure you that there is no expected unpleasant odor after these procedures.

Valuable musang excrement before washing

The animal is especially valued for the fact that while in its gastrointestinal tract, coffee beans are fermented in a special way, due to which they lose the inherent bitterness of coffee. And the taste of coffee becomes sour.

Luwak coffee beans after washing

Right on the farm they can fry it

Luwak coffee beans after roasting

There is a legend about how people first learned the unique properties of luwak coffee. A misfortune happened in one poor family: wild masangs (or tsivengs) ate the entire crop of ripe coffee beans for sale. The family was very sad, but then they noticed the excrement of animals, and in them - undigested grains. Out of desperation, these grains were washed, roasted and passed off as ordinary coffee. What was their surprise when the taste of it turned out to be simply delicious!

Today, the production of luwak coffee is a complex and expensive process. Wild animals are caught and settled on the farm. They produce a special enzyme only 6 months of the year, so the rest of the time they are fed ordinary food, usually vegetables and fruits. When the time comes, all other food from their diet is removed and fed exclusively with coffee fruits. Since it is quite expensive to feed the animals, often they are simply caught in the right season, and after the production of coffee they are released to be caught the following year. In addition, breeding them on a farm will not work: these animals do not breed in captivity.

We saw luwak coffee farms in Vietnam and Bali, and it was a pity for the animals everywhere: such living machines operated by man.

Close animal mink on the farm

By the way, we heard that they began to produce coffee from the excrement of an elephant and even birds. The process is approximately the same as with musangs, but the volumes, of course, are many times greater. We have not seen such coffee in Vietnam, but they say that it is as tasty as luwak. If so, maybe soon furry animals will stop being tortured on farms? After all, one elephant can produce 100 times more delicious coffee than a small rodent.

How to brew luwak coffee

Like ordinary coffee, luwak in Europe or Asia is often brewed in Turks (this method is called "oriental").

In Vietnam, they prefer a different method: small metal cups with a sieve and a press, where coffee is poured with hot water, and it is infused, dripping into a glass drop by drop. We liked this method, we bought ourselves such devices and now we always carry them with us.

How much is vietnamese luwak coffee

Today in Asia, many packs are sold with the image of the musang animal (the one that produces expensive grains) on the package. The cost of such packs starts from $ 2 per 500 gr. But we hasten to assure you that real luwak grains in such packs are no more than 1-5%, and maybe not at all. Often, under the guise of luwak coffee, artificially fermented coffee is sold in packs, which has nothing to do with cute animals.

Usually, luwak coffee is mixed with robusta and sold. The more luwak grains in a pack, the more expensive it will be. The price of pure kopi-luwak coffee in beans in Vietnam is about $ 1000 . And the cost of 1 cup of luwak coffee in Europe can reach $ 90 !

The price of luwak coffee in Russia today reaches 3700 rubles per 100 gr. or 24 "800 per 1 kg. We quote these prices from a specialized site that sells this particular type of coffee in Russia luwak.rf.

Video about real Luwak coffee from Indonesia:

We bought such packs in Vietnam and for only $ 2, most likely they do not contain real luwak coffee beans, but the coffee is unrealistically delicious:

The most expensive and most difficult to produce coffee called "Black Tusk" is made in the province of Chiang Rai, Thailand. The secret of the drink is in its unusual processing method - Arabica coffee berries are passed through the digestive tract of elephants. It's good for people and animals! Firstly, hardworking elephants are fed deliciously. Secondly, they themselves sponsor the creation and support of elephant veterinary clinics in Thailand with their “labor”. Well, they earn a lot on coffee - one kilogram costs buyers $ 1,100. To produce it, you need to feed an elephant 33 times more fresh coffee berries.

(Total 25 photos)

1. Nyang and Linda - two wives of the same husband - collect coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of elephants, Chiang Sen, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

2. A Lisu woman gathers ripe Arabica berries on a plantation in Phrao, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

3. Harvesting coffee berries. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

4. Ripe coffee berries resemble cherry fruits. In English, they are called so - "cherries". (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

5. Mahut (a man who rides elephants) walks with his elephant in the early foggy morning. At this time, elephants eat grass in the meadows. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

6. Indian elephant used in the "technological process." (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

7. Lun makes rice porridge with coffee berries especially for elephants. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

8. Washed coffee beans for porridge. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

9. Rice and coffee porridge. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

10. Elephants eat their lunch, which will then become the most expensive coffee in the world. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

11. Elephants love this kind of food. However, they also eat grass in large quantities. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

12. Brown eye of an elephant. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

13. A mash of porridge scattered by an elephant while eating. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

14. Black Tusk founder Blake Dinkin feeds elephants himself. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

15. Return "to base". (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

16. The long-awaited litter. It takes the animal 15-30 hours to digest the berries. At the same time, most of the grains (only the berries are digested) deteriorate, break or are lost in the grass. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

17. Lun rests while his elephants "work" - digest coffee berries. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

18. Collecting coffee beans from elephant droppings. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

19. Such an extravagant way of processing coffee was taken from Indonesian colleagues who make “Kopi Luwak” - coffee passed through the digestive tract of musang. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)22. Miki Giles from Hong Kong enjoys Black Tusk with 6-year-old sire elephant Meena. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)25. Indian elephant, serving for the benefit of people and their relatives. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

The most expensive coffee in the world, called Black Tusk, is made from coffee beans eaten and digested by Thai elephants and costs $1,100 per kg. The exotic drink has a rich, mild taste due to the process of digestion in the intestines of an elephant.

“When an elephant eats coffee beans, the acid in its stomach breaks down coffee proteins, which gives the drink a bitter taste,” the experts explained. “The result is a coffee with a very mild taste without the bitterness of a regular drink.”

The most expensive and delicious coffee in the world is very similar to another type of Kopi Luwak coffee, which is obtained from the excrement of musang animals. However, the stomach of an elephant in this sense has a slight advantage. On average, it takes an animal about 15 to 30 hours to digest coffee beans, which are “languished” along with bananas, sugarcane and other ingredients of a typical elephant’s vegetarian diet, to produce a uniquely rich and fruity taste.

A rare variety of coffee can be tasted only at four resorts in the world: three in the Maldives and one in Thailand, and a cup of such a drink is not cheap - $ 50.

Why is it so expensive? Firstly, keeping elephants in the reserve is a costly business. Secondly, elephants are fed only Thai Arabica coffee grown at an altitude of 1500 m. In addition, elephants need to eat about 32 kg of coffee fruits to produce 1 kg of coffee beans.

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I bought coffee yesterday and witnessed a funny scene that threw up a topic for a story. A puffy and equally self-confident lady told a very nice seller that she had already tried all kinds of coffee (😀) and didn’t know what to buy…

The young man very politely asked the customer if she knew that the most expensive coffee in the world is made from ... animal poop! The lady was noisily upset, said that the seller was mocking her and left the coffee shop (to our great joy).

But the guy was absolutely right - one of the most expensive varieties in the world, luwak coffee (or kopi luwak, Kopi Luwak) make a very cute animal named from the excrement musang or palm civet ( paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

The word "kopi" is translated in the local dialect in two ways - both as musang and as coffee.

This coffee is produced commercially in Indonesia, the Philippines, South India and Vietnam. It is indeed one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

The most amazing thing is the flowery epithets that are awarded to luwak: “the most prestigious in the world”, “premium class”, “drink of the gods”, “caramel”, “with a delicate aroma of vanilla and chocolate” (that squeamish lady would have fainted already 😀 )

How is this fantastic drink made? Yes, very tricky: civets eat fresh coffee berries, which are processed in their stomachs and intestines by special digestive enzymes.

The special taste of kopi-luwak is explained by the ability of the gastric juice of musangs to break down some proteins that give bitterness to the finished drink, as well as by the action of bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract and interaction with secretions of glands, which include civet.

Coffee beans that naturally leave the digestive tract of the musanga (with those same, well, poop ...) are dried in the sun,

then they are thoroughly washed, after which they are dried again in the sun and only then fried.

Wild civets, by the way, are great gourmets and fussy - they choose the most selective and ripe coffee berries. And farmers then carefully collect their poop.

And initially they made their way to coffee plantations wild civets, but then some ingenious joker came up with the idea to pick the grains from their poop and process it in the manner described above. And away we go - now these unfortunate civets, which are a bit like cats in their habits, are kept on farms in cages and force-fed with coffee berries.

Each civet is fed about 1 kg of coffee berries per day, which yields only about 50 g of grains in poop.- this "small efficiency" explains the fact that luwak is one of the most expensive coffees on our planet.

Moreover, in captivity, musangs sit in cramped cages and cannot move along the branches of a coffee tree and choose especially ripe fruits, as their wild counterparts do - on farms, civet are forced to eat what the staff feeds them.

Also, in farm conditions, the diet of musangs differs from the natural one, which can affect the taste of the drink. In addition, methods have been developed to artificially flavor coffee with civet.

Civets are actually predominantly predatory animals and in nature feed on rodents, birds and their eggs, bats and lizards, insects and worms, and sometimes fruits and coffee berries. On farms, musangs are fed not only with coffee berries, but also with chicken.

Moreover, these musangs are active at night, so coffee berries are fed to them in the evening (while hungry after hibernation), and chicken is given at night.

The high cost of luwak is also explained by the fact that civets categorically refuse to breed in hateful captivity, and production can be increased only by capturing more and more new wild animals. Sadness!!!

Moreover, this very “magic enzyme”, which gives coffee beans a “soft flower shade”, is produced in the body of a civet for only six months, therefore, on many farms, animals are released for a walk in nature, and then they are caught again so as not to feed 6 months in vain.

The price of luwak coffee (kopi luwak) ranges from 250 to 1200 dollars per kilogram.

Of course, I haven’t tried this coffee, but I found reviews on the Internet that it has a mild and less tart taste than more familiar coffee varieties, but the price is clearly inflated.

Apparently, this is already a matter of psychology and snobbery - to enjoy not the product, but rather the dollars spent on it and the opportunity to boast to my friends that I drank this most expensive luwak coffee in the world.

There is another high-end coffee also produced by palm civet in southeastern Peru called Terra Nera, which is produced no more than 45 kg per year and is sold only in one of the stores in London, so its cost per kilogram can exceed the terrible figure of 20 thousand dollars.

Ready coffee is divided into 6 classes of roasting, and this must be indicated on the packaging.
The cost of one package starts from 11 thousand dollars. All coffee bags are tied with laces with 24k gold tags, where information about the manufacturer and the degree of roasting is engraved.

It turns out that exactly Terra Nera- the most expensive type of coffee, although Wikipedia considers the rarest elephant coffee to be the most expensive (it is produced in Thailand only 49-50 kg per year!)

And the third grade of coffee is made from animal excrement from elephant droppings!

It's called "Black Tusk" "Black Ivory"(English black ivory - black ivory or black tusk) and is made from Arabica coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of elephants.

This rare coffee is produced in the Golden Triangle, on the border of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. It is also one of the rarest and most expensive coffees in the world - 35 grams will cost gourmets 66 US dollars.

After the coffee beans enter the elephant's stomach, its stomach acid breaks down the protein that makes the coffee bitter. As a result, according to tasters, a soft drink is obtained without the usual bitterness for coffee.

The elephant digests coffee beans from 15 to 30 hours along with its usual food - bananas, sugar cane and other plant components of the elephant's diet. During digestion, the grains are saturated with an earthy and fruity smell, undergoing a natural fermentation process.

Connoisseurs say that coffee made from elephant feces has the aroma of chocolate and flowers, and its taste carries notes of milk chocolate, hazelnuts and a subtle hint of fragrant spices and red coffee berries.

Elephant mahouts' wives collect manure, knead it, and extract whole coffee berries from it. The berries are thoroughly washed and coffee beans are extracted from them, which are subsequently transported to Bangkok for drying.

The price of a kilogram of black ivory coffee exceeds $ 1,100, and one small cup of this elite drink will cost you $ 50-100.

You can taste unique coffee only in Abu Dhabi, at the Anantara Golden Triangle resort and at the luxury hotels of the Anantara chain.

To get one kilogram of Black Ivory, you need to feed the elephant 33 kilograms of fresh coffee berries, and the elephants agree to eat only the best Arabica varieties grown at a 1.5-kilometer altitude.

Most of the coffee beans simply disappear - chewed or lost in the tall grass after the elephant's feces. Yes, and keeping these large animals is quite expensive.

It's nice that 8% of all Black Ivory sales go to the Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, whose main goal is to preserve the elephant population.

Note. This article uses photographs from open sources on the Internet, all rights belong to their authors, if you think that the publication of any photo violates your rights, please contact me using the form in the section, the photo will be deleted immediately.

Every real coffee lover, if not tried, then at least heard about the world-famous Indonesian luwak coffee. What epithets are not awarded to this coffee by manufacturers and sellers: "the most prestigious in the world", "elite", "premium class", "drink of the gods", its taste is "unusually soft", "caramel", "with a delicate aroma of vanilla and chocolate, and so on and so forth. Although we ourselves do not really like coffee and are not great connoisseurs of it, we still decided to find out better what this “animal coffee” is. Luwak is pronounced as “luwak” in the local language, but since the pronunciation of “luwak” is more familiar to most, we will not retrain anyone and will continue to call it “luwak coffee”. To write this post, we visited several Bali coffee plantations, as well as the annual Indonesian coffee festival in Ubud, where we tasted different varieties, compared ordinary coffee with luwak coffee, and also talked to local coffee masters. So, get acquainted, the main character in the chain of production of luwak coffee, a small animal with sad eyes - musang or palm civet (paradoxurus hermaphroditus)


The process of making this exquisite coffee is as follows: civets eat fresh coffee berries, which are processed in their stomachs and intestines due to special enzymes. Coffee beans, which naturally leave the digestive tract of animals, are dried in the sun, then thoroughly washed, after which they are dried again in the sun and only then roasted.
The best and most delicious coffee is produced by wild civet, which at night make their way to coffee plantations, where they feast on selected - juicy and ripe coffee berries, and as a thank you leave their waste products, which farmers then find under coffee bushes and carefully collect

It is difficult to imagine in which inflamed brain the idea was originally born to pick out the grains from the excrement and eat them, but the fact remains that this happened, and the civet began to be caught and planted in cages in order to put the production of luwak coffee on stream. Despite the assurances of farmers that the civet continues to be fed exclusively with selected berries, this is hard to believe, and judging by the hungry eyes of the animals, they are unlikely to be very picky
Each civet is fed about 1 kg of coffee berries per day, which yields only about 50 g of the desired grains. civets live not only on coffee rations - since they are predators by nature, animal food should also be present in their diet - as a rule, they are fed with chicken. During the day, luwaks are sleepy and lethargic and sleep most of the day, and their peak of activity comes at night, so the main feeding with coffee berries falls on the evening, and the chicken is given almost at night. The high cost of this coffee is explained by the fact that civets do not breed in captivity, so the only way to increase production is through wild animals. In addition, a special enzyme that affects coffee beans is produced in their bodies only 6 months a year, and the rest of the time they are kept “idle”. Many even release civets into the wild, and catch them again by the season - it turns out to be more profitable than feeding them for nothing for six months. The cost of luwak coffee on plantations is about 150,000 rupees ($15) per 100 g, with a wholesale purchase of about $100 per kilogram. In Europe, the price reaches $400 per 1 kilogram, and in retail, the price for coffee packaged in packs can reach $100 per 100 g. We asked to see the plantation, and we were given a tour of the territory
They showed the unfortunate civets slumbering in their cages. As a rule, they are quite aggressive, but during the daytime, some individuals turn out to be friendly, so that they can even be picked up. They are soft and fluffy to the touch, like cats, and their faces are very cute.
After the cages with animals, we looked at how the grains, which were not yet separated from the excrement, are dried on special pallets placed in the sun.
Then the already selected and washed grains are dried.
After that, completely prepared and dried grains await their turn for the next process.
Next, we watched the next stage of the transformation - the roasting of coffee beans.
So on the plantations you can see the whole process of turning coffee - from berries that grow on trees to the usual roasted beans or even ground coffee packaged in packs for sale.
We even put our hands to the roasting process - the boy stirring the grains honored us and handed us his ladle
After the tour, we were invited to a table.
And then to the tasting ceremony, where they offered to taste several varieties of tea, as well as regular coffee.
We leisurely sipped tea, enjoying the views of the rice terraces.
But Kopi Luwak was also offered to try, but for a fee - a cup of exclusive costs 50,000 rupees ($5). We tried it later, at the Food Festival in Ubud - if you drink it with the amount of sugar, as the Indonesians like to do, then you can not tell the difference. Without sugar, the taste of luwak coffee is slightly different - it is softer and less tart, but in our opinion, the price for it is wound up more for the brand than for the taste, although this is only our personal opinion, and we, again, are not coffee connoisseurs. In addition to civets, plantations often contain other animals, such as porcupines.
rabbits
Bees and wasps are bred - wasp honey, by the way, has a very specific taste
And also, in addition to coffee, spices and cocoa are grown on plantations.
In the shops at the plantation, you can buy packaged spices and other products with extracts of cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg
Or try or smell not yet packaged, but freshly picked spices

How to find coffee plantations in Bali