coffee process

kopi luwak

In Bali and other parts of Indonesia they make coffee out of the beans after they have been eaten and digested by an Indonesian civet (Indonesians call them Luwaks) . The bean stays intact but the berry is eaten, the Balinese collect the animals poo, clean and then can go ahead and process the bean. Why was this even thought of as a way to have your morning coffee? Well I did some research and coffee was introduced by the Dutch in the 18th century as a cash crop, the Dutch prohibited the native farmers and workers from picking coffee for their own use. But they really liked coffee (dont we all), and they had noticed that the local civet that was eating them actually left the bean intact, so they cleaned and used those  beans. It soon spread across Indonesia and the Dutch colonies that this coffee was aromatic and soon became a favourite with all, Because of the low  production of this coffee it has always been expensive, even back then. The roasting process at this place up in the mountains of Bali was stirring by hand  for 2 hours over a wood fire, then grinding it in a mortor and wooden pestle. Word of warning though, some places cage the Luwak and feed them the berries, we witnessed this here and it was really sad to see them in little cages instead of jumping in the trees. So only buy the wild luwak coffee, its better coffee as well for the luwak selects the ripest of berries only.

roasting coffee in bali