The World’s Most Expensive Coffee
Hacienda La Esmerelda is making waves this year as the “most expensive coffee“; after years of leading the Best of Panama auctions, the most recent crop commanded an astonishing 160% of last year’s price and tops out at retail around $130/lb.
But it’s not the world’s most expensive coffee.
That honor belongs to Kopi Luwak, an Indonesian coffee so named for the most instrumental aspect of its creation: the luwak, or Asian palm civet, a small mammal of the Vivveridae family. How does something resembling a weasel play a role in making coffee that can command up to $600/lb. at retail? Simple–the luwak eats coffee cherries right off the tree, which ferment as they pass through the luwak’s digestive tract. The partially digested coffee seeds are then removed from the luwak’s droppings, cleaned, and processed. You read that right. This coffee is made from animal poop.
The theory is that the digestive enzymes of the luwak naturally ferment the cherries on their way through, lending the coffee a smooth, winy flavor that can’t be replicated by different growing or roasting methods. Not everyone agrees that this actually works the way luwak farmers says it does, some arguing instead that the coffee is superior because luwaks only eat the ripest coffee cherries, acting as a natural selector of a coffee orchard’s best beans.
What everyone agrees on, however, is that Kopi Luwak is a superior coffee. Only about a thousand pounds of true Kopi Luwak are produced each year and it flies off the shelves almost regardless of price.
About six years ago the coffee shop I roasted for held a tasting event for Kopi Luwak. Tickets for the private tasting went for $60 each and we sold out the tickets the same day they went on sale. At the time I was only just beginning to learn the craft, so my mentor roasted the beans and hosted the event. I am a little ashamed to say that I didn’t actually try the coffee; I was no Anthony Bourdain and the prospect of drinking “poop coffee” struck me as profoundly unappealing. I told myself that if I wanted coffee that tasted like crap I could always go down the street to the Starbucks…
Now of course I wish I had tried it, especially since Kopi Luwak may not hold its prominent place much longer. In light of its commanding such a high price, other countries such as Vietnam are experimenting with ways to replicate it, feeding coffee cherries of substandard quality to caged local versions of the Indonesian civet. Vietnam’s “weasel coffee” doesn’t carry the taste reputation of Kopi Luwak but flooding the market with it may well depress prices on the Indonesian archipelago.
You’re right… I’m not sure I wanted to know.
I vaguely seem to recall hearing about this coffee somewhere in the distant past, but I think I kind of discounted it as a) either an urban myth or b) something I didn’t really want to know. (kinda like chocolate covered ants).
I suppose I might try it - just to say I had - if the opportunity presented itself. But then again I don’t expect to have that kind of money to spend on an experiment any time soon.