One has to wonder what brave soul first discovered the pleasures of Kopi Luwak coffee. What exactly propelled them to take that first courageous mouthful? No one knows how or when Kopi Luwak coffee was discovered, but we are all thankful to that first individual who took a chance in making kopi luwak.

The fascination and curiosity surrounding Kopi Luwak has much to do with its incredibly smooth and earthy taste, its very limited supply and its high price. Kopi Luwak is considered the world’s best coffee, and is its rarest and most expensive. All of these traits make for a dynamic story destined to capture the imagination of coffee lovers everywhere. All of these qualities directly result from the very unique and fascinating process of how Kopi Luwak is made. This process, more than any other feature, is the heart of Kopi Luwak Coffee and the best story of all.

To truly understand exactly where Kopi Luwak comes from, you need two necessary ingredients: a ripe coffee berry and a hungry Asian Palm Civet. The Asian Palm Civet, or Luwak, is a small furry creature that has been compared to a cat, a raccoon or a skunk (the Asian Palm Civet is actually most closely related to the mongoose). It lives in Southeast Asia  and spends its days snacking on fruits, small insects and especially bright red coffee berries, which contain coffee beans at their center. This information creates good context for the question of "how is Kopi Luwak made?"

The first step in how Kopi Luwak is made is selecting the best coffee berries. Not every coffee berry has what it takes to be a Kopi Luwak coffee bean. The Asian Palm Civet is a very astute judge of quality and will only choose the ripest coffee berries when given the choice. This is not the case with most other coffees. Humans are not as discerning as civets. It makes more sense for humans to collect as many coffee beans as possible and assume the flavor will even out in the roasting process. The Asian Palm Civet doesn’t think this way. After all, it has to eat the coffee berries. Its taste buds are on the line and quality matters. Quality matters to Kopi Luwak drinkers as well (why else pay $50 a cup?). They know that when a civet picks the ripest coffee berry, a ripe coffee bean comes with it.

The next step in how civet coffee is made is the civet’s favorite. It eats the berry, sending it and its companion coffee bean on a journey that might not seem so incredible to most, but is fascinating to coffee lovers and even a few food researchers.  This journey is what creates a Kopi Luwak coffee bean and imbues it with the unique flavor that no man made process can replicate.

While that little coffee bean makes its way out on the other side of the civet intact, it is not the same coffee bean that went in. Somewhere in its intestinal travels, the coffee bean is changed by the complex digestive processes going on around it. Scientific researchers have been curious enough to study this phenomenon. They have a few running theories on what that civet’s digestive tract is up to that makes Kopi Luwak so profoundly different from other coffees.

As the coffee bean travels through the civet’s system, it is washed in digestive enzymes which penetrate the surface of the bean and break down its protein components. Protein is known to contribute to the bitterness in coffee (which is why many coffee drinkers add sugar and cream to their drinks).  The protein breakdown of the coffee bean is a key feature of Kopi Luwak and accounts for its noticeably smooth flavor.

What else happens in that civet’s belly that gives Kopi Luwak its earthy, syrupy, chocolaty flavors? Food researchers from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) have tackled this question and found that micro properties in the bean are indeed altered as it passes through the civet. Most notably, the internal fermentation process makes the bean harder, more brittle and darker in color. The researchers also confirmed that Kopi Luwak coffee beans do posses less protein then their undigested counterparts, which affects the smoothness of the coffee’s taste. An electronic nose found subtle aromatic differences between Kopi Luwak coffee beans and others.

The findings of this study confirm what Kopi Luwak drinkers already know. Kopi Luwak is unlike any other coffee on the market. Its exciting tour through an Asian Palm Civet’s digestive tract really does change the coffee bean, enhancing the flavor of the coffee it produces.

The journey of the Kopi Luwak coffee bean doesn’t end with the civet. While some Kopi Luwak beans are still gathered naturally in the wild, most come from small civet farms and ranches in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. A civet farm might as well be civet heaven for the civet. Its only job, though an important one, is to spend its days searching out and eating the best coffee berries. Ranchers collect the creatures’ droppings and give the coffee beans a good and thorough wash. A further dry in the sun continues the cleaning process.

Many first-time costumers are initially concerned with the safety of consuming Kopi Luwak. Studies have shown that due to this stringent cleaning process, Kopi Luwak coffee beans are not only completely safe to consume but actually contain less bacteria then most regular coffee beans!

After the Kopi Luwak coffee beans are washed and dried, most of them go out into the local markets in Southeast Asia. More and more are finding their way into international markets, especially in the United States, Europe and Japan. Most Kopi Luwak coffee is lightly roasted to keep all the complex flavors intact. The roasting process is also the final safeguard against bacteria.

From that light roasting, true Kopi Luwak coffee is born. The process of its creation is long, unique and to some, a little disturbing, but the final product has gained accolades across the world