Animal luwak is an unusual producer of elite coffee

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

The small animal luwak, also known as musang or palm civet, belongs to the civet family. Tropical forests are the main habitat of musangs, but their habitat is quite diverse. The main distribution area of luwak is Africa, South and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia. An animal luwak with a body weight of 1 to 15 kg looks like a marten or a ferret, its body length varies from 30 cm to 1 meter. Luwaks are active mainly at night. Often, the luwak animal is the target of hunters who want to get not only valuable civet fur, but also edible meat.

Food

The animal luwak lives on trees and is a small predator, but the basis of its diet is not only meat, but also various insects, as well as fruits, nuts and other plant components, including coffee tree grains. Musangs carefully select the most ripe and undamaged coffee beans thanks totheir sense of smell, which allows them to find fragrant and delicious coffee beans.

Production of elite coffee

The luwak eats coffee beans in such quantity that it cannot digest them. When coffee beans enter the body of the luwak, they are fermented, which subsequently affects the taste of the beans. In the stomach of the animal, the process of digestion of the pulp of coffee fruits takes place, and the coffee seeds are excreted naturally, acquiring a slightly altered appearance. They are collected, thoroughly cleaned and washed from litter of luwak. After that, coffee plantation workers dry the coffee beans in the sun - so they are lightly roasted. After such actions, the sale of coffee begins, which often depicts a luwak - an animal that "produces" an elite product.

Studies show that this coffee is safe for consumers, because after careful processing of the beans, they are practically free of pathogenic bacteria, and subsequent roasting of the beans kills the rest.

The production of such coffee requires a lot of manual work, takes a lot of time and effort, so it turns out little. The rarity and high cost of coffee is a consequence of the destruction of the natural habitat of luwak, which causes a decrease in their number.

Until some time, palm civets were considered dangerous pests that ate all ripe fruits, so they were exterminated by Indonesian farmers. However, as it turned out, in vain, because with the help of these small animals you can earna lot of money in the production of elite coffee called "Kopi Luwak", which has become the most expensive to date.

A bit of history

When Indonesia was a colonial possession of Holland, local farmers were demanded more and more taxes in the form of coffee beans, which were very much appreciated by the local population. Then Indonesian farmers noticed that coffee beans from musang excrement are practically not digested, so they began to be thoroughly cleaned and delivered to the Netherlands. However, coffee from these beans turned out to be so fragrant and tasty that it began to gain popularity outside of Indonesia. This is how the original technology for the production of Kopi Luwak coffee was born, which today is considered the rarest and most unusual. Many coffee lovers refer to it as an aromatic drink that has a caramel flavor with a hint of chocolate. It's up to you to try this coffee or not!