What Is Civet Coffee?

Civet coffee is one of those things people hear about and immediately think, I have to try that once.

Also known as Kopi Luwak or Luwak coffee, it became famous as one of the world's most unusual and expensive coffees because of the rather extraordinary way it is produced.

A civet eats ripe coffee cherries. The fruit is digested, but the coffee beans inside pass through the animal's digestive system and are excreted. Those beans are then collected, thoroughly cleaned, processed, roasted and brewed as coffee.

Yes.

It is, quite literally, coffee that has travelled through a small mammal first.

That novelty has made civet coffee famous around the world, particularly throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

But unfortunately, there is another side to the story.

And it is the reason we don't sell it.

What Exactly Is a Civet?

Despite the common expression "civet cat", a civet isn't actually a cat.

Civets are small nocturnal mammals found across parts of Asia and Africa. In the wild they eat a varied diet including fruit, insects and other foods.

Coffee cherries happen to be one of the fruits some civets enjoy.

Traditionally, people collected coffee beans from the droppings of wild civets after the animals had naturally eaten ripe coffee cherries.

That is where Kopi Luwak began.

In theory, it sounds rather clever.

The animal chooses ripe cherries, nature performs its mysterious digestive magic, somebody finds the beans afterwards and an unusual coffee is created.

The problem came when Civet Coffee became very valuable.

How Does the Civet Change the Coffee?

When the coffee cherry passes through the civet's digestive system, digestive enzymes and fermentation affect components within the bean.

The theory behind Kopi Luwak is that this process changes the finished flavour of the coffee.

It certainly creates an unusual story.

Whether it creates an extraordinary cup of coffee is another question entirely.

The novelty and rarity of authentic wild-collected Civet Coffee became a huge part of its appeal, and prices climbed accordingly.

Unfortunately, once something becomes very expensive, people generally want to produce more of it.

And wild civets don't particularly care about production targets.

Why We Don't Love Civet Coffee

This is where the story stops being quite so charming.

As demand for Kopi Luwak coffee grew, wild civets began being captured and kept in captivity so their coffee production could be controlled.

And that's the part we have a problem with.

World Animal Protection reports that civets used within parts of the commercial industry may be captured from the wild and housed in small cages, with poor diets and limited ability to behave naturally.

This isn't simply an old story about practices that disappeared years ago.

A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science investigated 29 civet coffee tourism plantations in Indonesia, along with eight wildlife markets.

Researchers assessed 99 civets at tourism plantations and another 136 within wildlife markets.

Their conclusion was fairly confronting.

Not one civet assessed met all five recognised animal-welfare freedoms, and the researchers found welfare conditions that did not meet Indonesian laws and regulations.

That's enough for us.

But Isn't Some Kopi Luwak Wild?

Yes.

And this distinction is important.

Traditional Civet Coffee can be produced by collecting beans excreted naturally by completely wild civets.

Nobody needs to cage the animal.

Nobody needs to feed it coffee cherries.

The civet wanders around being a civet, eats whatever it wants, and humans collect the beans afterwards.

World Animal Protection itself distinguishes between wild-sourced and caged production and identifies genuine wild-sourced Civet Coffee as the humane version of the product.

The difficulty for the person buying the coffee is knowing exactly where their Luwak Coffee actually came from.

Investigations into the industry have raised concerns around traceability and products marketed as wild-sourced when their origins may be difficult for consumers to verify.

For us, that makes the decision pretty simple.

There are too many incredible coffees in the world to need an animal involved at all.

Does Expensive Mean Better Coffee?

Absolutely not.

And this is where The Coffee Girl gets on her soapbox for a moment.

Coffee gets expensive for all sorts of reasons.

Scarcity.

Processing.

Origin.

Small production.

Labour.

Awards.

Marketing.

And sometimes simply because something has a fabulous story attached to it.

Price doesn't automatically equal flavour.

Something being exotic doesn't automatically make it good either.

At Kimberley Coffee Company we would rather get excited about an unusual coffee because of where it came from, how it was grown, who produced it, how it was processed and what it tastes like.

Not because it came out the other end of a frightened animal.

There are much more interesting ways to be adventurous with coffee.

Want an Exotic Coffee? Try Something That Doesn't Need a Civet

This is where Boab Coffee comes into the story.

Years ago, Mark started experimenting with one of the most distinctly Kimberley ingredients imaginable: the Australian boab.

The result became our Boab Coffee, an unusual Australian coffee hybrid with its roots firmly in the Kimberley.

Earlier versions of the product combined locally harvested boab tree nut with our award-winning organic coffee, creating something completely different from an ordinary blend.

Our current Boab Coffee continues that Kimberley story as a distinctive medium-dark coffee with nutty, earthy cocoa characteristics and a rich body, roasted fresh in Broome using sustainably sourced coffee origins.

No civet required.

What Does Boab Coffee Taste Like?

Boab Coffee isn't trying to imitate Kopi Luwak.

That's important.

It is an alternative in the sense that it's for people who say:

"I've tried normal coffee. Show me something really different."

Our current Boab Coffee is medium-dark roasted, with flavours leaning towards:

nuts
earthy cocoa
chocolate sweetness
rich body
subtle floral brightness

It works beautifully through espresso, plunger and stovetop brewing.

More importantly, it has an actual Australian story behind it.

One that doesn't require keeping a wild animal in a cage.

Exotic Coffee Doesn't Have to Mean Cruel Coffee

This is probably the biggest point I'd like people to take away from this.

Being adventurous with coffee is wonderful.

Please do it.

Try Ethiopian coffees bursting with fruit and florals.

Try Timor-Leste coffee.

Try unusual microlots.

Try different fermentation processes.

Try natural processing versus washed coffee.

Try cold brew.

Try Boab Coffee.

Try something grown somewhere you've never been.

There is an enormous world of extraordinary coffee available now.

You don't need an animal's digestive system to make coffee interesting.

What Should I Do If I See Civet Coffee While Travelling?

Ask questions.

If you're offered Kopi Luwak or Civet Coffee, particularly at a tourism venue, find out where it came from.

Ask:

Are the civets wild?
Are any civets kept on the property?
Can the business verify that the beans were collected from wild animals?
How is that supply chain monitored?

If there are civets sitting in cages while you're being encouraged to taste Luwak Coffee, I think you already have your answer.

You can politely decline.

There will always be another coffee.

Our Take at Kimberley Coffee Company

We understand why people are fascinated by Civet Coffee.

It has everything a great story needs.

Animals.

Coffee.

Indonesia.

Mystery.

A slightly revolting production method.

And an enormous price tag.

Of course people Google it.

But once you know how parts of the commercial Kopi Luwak industry operate, we think there are far better ways to spend your coffee money.

At Kimberley Coffee Company, we'd rather celebrate the farmer, the region, the bean, the roaster and the ingredients.

If you want something genuinely unusual, try our Boab Coffee.

If you want adventure, explore our single origin coffees.

And if you simply want a cracking good cup of coffee, freshly roasted in Australia and delivered to your door, we can certainly help with that too.

Because life's too short for boring coffee.

But it's also far too short to make an animal miserable just so we can say we've tried something exotic.

Simone
The Coffee Girl
Kimberley Coffee Company