Do Not Drink Crappuccino: The sad true story of civet coffee (kopi luwak)
Caged civets on Indonesian coffee plantations. Photos from the Guardian.
Coffee companies around the world still market kopi luwak along the lines of that original quirky story involving a wild animal’s digestive habits, many claiming that only 500 kilogrammes are collected a year, a scarcity that justifies its huge retail pricetag (usually between $200-400 a kilo, sometimes more). In fact, although it’s impossible to get precise figures, I estimate that the global production – farmers in India, Vietnam, China and the Philippines have all jumped on the bandwagon, too – is at least 50 tonnes, possibly much more. One single Indonesian farm claims to produce 7,000kg a year from 240 caged civets.
So kopi luwak is now rarely wild: it’s industrialised. Sounds disgusting? It is. The naturally shy and solitary nocturnal creatures suffer greatly from the stress of being caged in proximity to other luwaks, and the unnatural emphasis on coffee cherries in their diet causes other health problems too; they fight among themselves, gnaw off their own legs, start passing blood in their scats, and frequently die.
Wild luwaks – the trapping of which is supposed to be strictly controlled in Indonesia – are caught by poachers, caged and force-fed coffee cherries in order to crap out the beans for the pleasure of the thousands who have been conned into buying this “incredibly rare” and very expensive “luxury” coffee.
Read Civet coffee: Why it’s time to cut the crap, in the Guardian. Thanks to Jackie for this depressing alert. What’s next: celebrity crap coffee?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 17th, 2013 at 10:59
I saw an expose done by BBC on this last Sunday. I did not finish the special because I could not bear to continue watching it. The correspondent went undercover and pretended to look for suppliers for a fictitious fancy coffee company.
September 17th, 2013 at 13:54
Bakit kasi kailangang maranasan ang pag-inom ng kape na galing sa pwet ng ibang nilalang.
September 17th, 2013 at 16:04
Even without this horrible exposé, I could never bear the thought of drinking kopi luwak. Just knowing how it’s created puts me off. I can’t even eat frog legs, let alone drink this (yes, I know, it’s cleaned after ummm “harvesting,” etc. – but it’s really mostly psychological).
Now, with this, I’m doubly-disturbed.
September 17th, 2013 at 23:34
Mayroong brief history ng kopi luwat na nagsabing ang mga unang uminom nito’y mga “kikuyu” equivalent ng Indonesia sapagkat sila’y pinagbawalang uminom ng aning kape sa plantation ng mga Dutch noong late 19th century.
September 17th, 2013 at 23:36
*kopi luwak
September 18th, 2013 at 23:34
Why would a rational person want to ingest poop?