Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak is a coffee made from beans which have passed through the digestive tract of the civet cat (Musang in Malay; Paradoxus hermaphroditus).  It is a combination of the Malay words for coffee (kopi) and civet cat (luwak in Indonesian Malay).  Since civet cats are nocturnal, they are rarely seen by humans.  They also spend much of their time in trees (in the jungle), or in attics in towns and villages.


Civet cats that live in coffee plantations subsist upon a diet of coffee beans.  Their scat (feces) are collected, dried, and sold, or else processed into coffee.  The companies Animalcoffee and Paradise Coffee have excellent descriptions of the process used to turn this animal waste into a high-priced product.


Apparently, a 2006 article in Forbes magazine listed kopi luwak as one of the most expensive coffee in the world.  Not being a coffee drinker, I don't care!  It probably rates up there with Moose-Poop earrings for novelty value only.