Kopi Luwak- the most popular Balinese coffee is bound to make most of the animal lovers pop their eyes in anger, while non-animal lovers (if any,) can also expect to go on a trip of disgust and anguish. Yet many of us, would surely want to explore the most expensive and shittiest of coffee, as a token of Balinese love and culture.

Whatever people and otherwise Google might suggest about the cruelty metted out to animals in making of this coffee, Balinese people swear by it and claim that it is indeed the healthiest too, in the world! To assess their claim, @Srinistuff and I visited one of these coffee plantations in Ubud, Bali.  Here’s what we learnt:

Kopi Luwak- the shittiest and costliest coffee is made from the droppings of a wild cat look-alike called Luwak.

 

These Luwaks- shy, and nocturnal forest animals, feed into the coffee beans, eating the choicest ripe coffee cherries.  Since they cannot digest the coffee beans of these cherries, they poop it out along with the other crap.  The beans are then collected by coffee farmers, cleaned washed and processed  to attain the unique and highly prized form of taste, from their passage through the Luwak’s digestive system and the anal scent glands they use to mark their territory. Being wild, hard to easily find and with a unique way of processing the Kopi Luwak coffee, we couldn’t stop bringing our curiosity to uncontrollable levels and decided to experience and taste some for ourselves.

 

The coffee plantation in Ubud, we visited.

Our lady guide smiling and showing off the shitty coffee powder

And she is so excited to make us drink

Balinese coconut biscuits, accompanied the coffee 

 

And presenting to you the coffee… 😀

All in all, it was definitely an enlightening experience. While I honestly failed to understand the royalty that this type of coffee enjoys (the taste is ok, ok btw), I reckon that the way in which this coffee is made makes one eager to try it out.

At the end, however, it makes you feel a little guilty about those caged Luwaks. So, try it at your own risk.