The deal with Lopi Luwak coffee is pretty strange when you really examine it... or if you don’t examine it at all and just take the fact that it’s poop coffee at face value!

The idea is that the digestion of coffee cherries by a civet cat leads to a better cup of coffee. Kopi Luwak is ridiculously expensive, simply because people are willing to pay the big bucks for it!

The supposedly high quality taste, the luxurious price tag, and the strangeness factor are likely the reasons that people want to drink cat poop coffee.

Overall, people want to drink Kopi Luwak so that they can say that they have tried it. Let’s dive into the details a little bit.

What is Kopi Luwak Civet Coffee? 

Kopi Luwak Civet Coffee is actually a redundant phrase. In Indonesian, Kopi means coffee and Luwak means civet. It’s as simple as that. The terms, Kopi Luwak, Civet Coffee, Cat Poop coffee, etc. can be used interchangeably.

The Asian palm civet is the cat that everyone is so eager to consume the excrement of. This little fella is native to the several Asian countries, the most notable being Indonesian.

Where does Kopi Luwak Civet Coffee come from? 

The infamous cat poop coffee process is meant to go something like this;

All makes perfect sense, right? Yeah, maybe not.

The claim is that the coffee beans are fermented by the digestive tract of the civet in a way that alters the taste in a desirable way. Is this true? Who’s to say? Taste is subjective.

If this were the end of the story, then fine, by all means continue the practice. Different strokes and all that.

It is a sad reality that many people jump at the opportunity to fetch a high price, even by means of such awful practices.

Why is Kopi Luwak coffee so expensive?

The plain and simple reason that Kopi Luwak coffee is so expensive is that people are or where willing to pay for it. 

Okay, so then why are people willing to pay for it? People seem willing to cough up the big bucks for civet coffee because;

This is a largely unsubstantiated claim. Even if this were true in the past, specialty coffee has come a long way. What’s amusing is that Indonesia already produces some of the best coffee in the world, they don’t need this title!

In the past, Kopi Luwak was indisputably the most expensive coffee in the world. Now? Not so much.

It is a bizarre novelty.

People like weird stuff. People like bizarre. Fair enough, but I think it’s more about…

Plain and simple, people like to tell other people about it. 

"I drank the most expensive coffee in the world, cat poop coffee!"

"Why?"

"....uhh".

Why you shouldn't purchase Kopi Luwak coffee.

What can we do about the cruelty that is being inflicted upon Indonesian palm civets?

Stop buying civet coffee!

If the demand for Kopi Luwak goes down, the prices will go down. If the prices go down, subjecting civets to such conditions will no longer be profitable.

It is in this way that we can help to stop the civet cat cruelty.

Another reason… as if it were needed, is that…

You’re probably being ripped off!

​Due to the high asking price, there are plenty of vendors eager to sell you their Kopi Luwak coffee. In reality, many of these products have never been anywhere near a civet cat, let alone eaten by one! Many other companies claim only to use the excreted beans of wild civets. This claim cannot be proven, and is frankly pretty hard to believe.

Indonesian Coffee Recommendations

All of these Indonesian coffees are great tasting as well as cruelty and poop-free!

For more great Indonesian coffees, check out this article!