Cat Poop Coffee: 9 things you didn’t know about Kopi Iuwak
There are a lot of unusual coffee trends out there: hey, we’re no stranger to a Nitro coffee, or a turmeric latte. But there’s one out of there that might be the strangest of them all. We are, of course, talking about Kopi Iuwak – or, Cat Poop Coffee, as its more commonly known.
As its name might suggest, the coffee comes from the only-partially digested coffee cherries its made from, which have already been eaten – and, erm, pooped out by – a special breed of ‘cat’ native to Indonesia. While that doesn’t sound quite as appetising as a Pumpkin Spice Latte, there are many reasons why it’s considered a delicacy.
Here’s everything you (probably didn’t) know about Kopi Iuwak…
The ‘cat’ it comes from is the Asian palm civet
For that reason, it’s sometimes also referred to as ‘civet coffee’. The small mammal (which actually isn’t technically feline at all, except for sharing some similarities in its appearance) is native to South and Southeast Asia, which is why most of the coffee is produced on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, and in East Timor. Good coffee comes from wild civets, though sadly, Asian palm civets are increasingly poached from the wild and traded for the purpose of making the coffee.
How Cat Poop Coffee is made
Now, brace yourself for the gross part: the wild civet eats coffee cherries, which are fermented as they pass through the civet’s intestines. The animal passes them out when they poop, after which the cherries are collected to make the coffee. From there, they are washed and dried repeatedly, before being roasted and turned into drinkable coffee beans…
Kopi Iuwak is safe to drink
As questionable as its sourcing might sound, yes, Cat Poop Coffee is safe to drink. The droppings from which good quality Kopi luwak is sourced from are washed and dried multiple times before being processed and prepared for roasting.
It’s good for you
As well as tasting good, there are multiple health benefits boasted by Kopi Iuwak which you won’t find with other varieties of coffee. Cat poop coffee is rich in antioxidants and has been found to improve your metabolism, control diabetes, and to help in preventing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Fans of Kopi Iuwak also claim that it has a very low acidity compared to regular coffee – meaningless stomach irritability that can sometimes be associated with other brews.
There’s a two-step process that makes the coffee so good
There are two key effects which the civets have on making the coffee such as high quality. The first is in selecting the coffee, as the animals choose to eat only certain coffee cherries. And civets have a discerning taste – they’re known to opt for only the most ripe, juiciest and best-tasting cherries. The second is in the digestion process, where the composition of the coffee cherries themselves are altered thanks to the biological and chemical mechanisms in the civet’s digestive tract.
It’s widely considered to be the most expensive coffee in the world
Due to its specific, delicate methods of production, civet coffee fetches a high price at market. A pound of roasted coffee beans can set you back up to $600 USD, while just one cup of brewed Kopi Iuwak can cost up to $100. That’s a pricey cup of joe.
It may be Indonesian, but it was influenced by Dutch farmers
You’d be forgiven for wondering, how does someone come to discover that Cat Poop Coffee tastes good? Well, before the coffee was discovered, Dutch settlers in the Indonesian archipelago has started growing coffee there in the 19th century. The locals soon noticed that the native civet cats were actually eating the beans that the Dutch were farming – and that the coffee cherries were popping straight out the other end of the animals, without being digested. The local Indonesian farmers were intrigued, and tried their hand at brewing the cherries – and found a delicacy way better than what the Dutch settlers had attempted to produce.
It goes by many names
Cat Poo Coffee, Poop Coffee, Kopi Iuwak, Civet Cat Coffee, the World’s Most Expensive Coffee, Big Big Cat Coffee… whatever you call it, it started life in a civet’s intestine.
Yes, you might have actually seen it before
Recognize cat poop coffee but don’t remember seeing it on the menu at Starbucks lately? Though it’s been around a while, it was made particularly famous in the USA by the 2007 movie The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. It’s even come to also be known as Bucket List Coffee to some, thanks to its role in the movie. In the film, Nicholson plays billionaire health care magnate Edward Cole — who enjoys drinking Kopi luwak, but doesn’t know how it is produced. Evidently, he hadn’t read this article.