Coffee made from cat poo - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak, made from beans that have passed through the digestive system of a civet is gaining fast in popularity and priced at 15 dollars a cup. Kopi Luwak, which is grown in Indonesia , is the world's rarest coffee, and it is sold for 400 dollars per kg. The beans pass through the digestive system of the civet, a small cat-like mammal, and are then separated from the faeces and processed before being sent to coffee fanatics all over the world. "It's damn hard to get hold of. There are lots of people selling it, but most of it is not authentic," the Courier Mail quoted Brisbane coffee guru Dean Merlo as saying. "I'd strongly suggest people don't buy it on the Internet, you're unlikely to get the real deal," he stated. The process starts with the civets, who are known in Indonesia as luwak, feeding on the red coffee cherries, and then the bean within the cherry passes through their digestive system intact. Enzymes in the civet's stomach then ferment the bean, and while still inside the protective membrane, the faeces are collected and the beans separated, washed and eventually roasted. As well as being drunk as a hot beverage, the beans are used in a Danish beer known as Weasel Stout.

Coffee made from cat poo is 'world's most expensive' at $15 a cup!