As a belated birthday gift, my friend treated me to lunch at Caprice at the Four Seasons. I knew the meal would be exceptional and I had starved myself in preparation. Towards the end of our meal, I was asked if I wanted to try the most expensive cup of coffee on the market. At $220 per shot, its beans trade at the same price as silver. Of course I did, and two espresso cups were brought to the table.
What makes Kopi Luwak, my cup of robusta, so expensive? “Its natural processing,” said my friend. Kopi Luwak’s “natural processing” is defined by several coffee journals as coffee cherries eaten by small, tree-dwelling civet cats in Indonesia who digest the fruit and excrete the bean. Farmers then pick through the feces to harvest the bean. Connoisseurs say this small marsupial dances from tree to tree selecting only the ripest, reddest cherries, and through fermentation by “sweetened belly enzymes” created on a diet of insects and berries, the beans are afforded an unique, bitter flavor. You can find this bean on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi, or in Vietnam where they call it “weasel coffee” because it comes from the droppings of weasels. China once produced Kopi Luwak, but because of SARS, thousands of civet cats were exterminated and this devastated the industry.
As I took my first sip, I rationalized that the beans had been washed several times before grinding. The coffee went down smooth but left a bitter aftertaste, like most premium espressos. It also had a nice, thick crème. Unfortunately, my untrained tongue really couldn’t distinguish this from other espressos I’ve tasted. I also knew I was only trying it because one needs to pay a small fortune for the privilege.
This episode brought to mind argan oil, which is sometimes pressed from the pits of the argan fruit, often found in goat excrement and picked through by Moroccan and Mexican farmers. The extraction is then used for body massages, as it’s widely considered to be an aphrodisiac.
As we finished our coffees, the manager presented us with numbered certificates saying we’ve had the 648th cup of Kupi Luwak, kind of like an achievement award you get at the end of the school year for perfect attendance. No doubt this certificate is given for bragging rights.