Say no to the Kopi Luwak Initiative!

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Kopi Luwak, is this "shit thing" really worth that much? Tony Wild is the first person to bring Kopi Luwak into public view, but now he is calling on us to boycott this luxury product together. (author / Tony Wild translator / Blue Bubble Editor / Eric Tour)

Kopi Luwak, also known as Nouak Coffee, is arguably the most expensive coffee in the world. Photo Source: shutterstock

1. Kopi Luwak's "unexpected popularity"

For the past 20 years, Kopi Luwak has been the "ultimate coffee". With its excellent taste and hard-won, it is regarded as a treasure by coffee sellers around the world, even appearing in CNN News, Oprah Show and Hollywood movies.

I first read the description of Kopi Luwak in a National Geographic magazine in 1981. Ten years later, in 1991, as director of coffee at Taylors of Harrogate, I was the first to introduce Kopi Luwak to the West. At that time, I bought only one kilogram and did not sell it through the company. Instead, I thought that maybe this kind of curiosity would arouse the interest of the local Yorkshire newspapers and radio stations where the company is located. The result was far more than I expected-it was widely reported by newspapers, television and radio. Since then, Kopi Luwak has gradually come into the public eye.

Coconut cats roam coffee plantations in Indonesia, and Kopi Luwak comes from their feces. Photo Source: theguardian.com

The real Kopi Luwak is not a commercially viable crop, but an interesting coffee treasure

The real Indonesian Kopi Luwak is collected from the droppings of a local wild animal called Paradoxurus hermaphroditus. The coconut cat is a timid nocturnal animal that takes advantage of the night to eat ripe coffee fruit during a bumper harvest on the coffee plantation. However, they cannot digest the seeds, that is, coffee beans, which are excreted in their faeces. The coffee beans, which pass through the coconut cat's digestive tract and anal glands (they mark the territory with the smell of the anal glands), are collected by farm workers and washed to form a unique flavor that is widely respected. At that time, because coconut cats were wild, rare in number, difficult to collect feces, and the quality of coffee beans harvested varied from time to time, Kopi Luwak was not a commercially viable crop, but an interesting coffee treasure. that's why I bought it.

How a Kopi Luwak is made: a coconut cat eats coffee fruit and excretes indigestible seeds. When these feces-wrapped beans are washed and dried, they become a priceless Kopi Luwak. Photo Source: shutterstock

3. The origin of Kopi Luwak has been used as a gimmick, and now it mostly comes from coconut cats in cages

But now, it is hard to see the original Kopi Luwak. Today's Kopi Luwak comes mostly from wild coconut cats in cages, and they are generally kept in harsh conditions. A Japanese scientist recently claimed to have invented a way to tell whether coffee beans come from wild coconut cats or captive coconut cats, especially if he can tell whether coffee beans come from wild coconut cats or captive ones.

Many coffee companies around the world are still using the original story about wildlife digestion habits as a stunt to sell Kopi Luwak. Many companies claim that they can only collect 500kg Kopi Luwak a year. And use this scarcity to justify its high price (Kopi Luwak usually sells for $200,400 per kilogram, sometimes more). In fact, although exact figures are not available, I estimate that Kopi Luwak's annual global production is at least 50 tons, much more than that is possible. Now farmers in India, Vietnam, China and the Philippines have joined the production of Kopi Luwak.

An Indonesian farm says it can produce 7000 kilograms of Kopi Luwak a year from 240 caged coconut cats. Photo Source: theguardian.com

4. Now Kopi Luwak has become the product of industrialization, and coconut cats have been treated cruelly.

Today's Kopi Luwak in Indonesia is basically the product of industrial production, and the original ecology is almost impossible. Doesn't that sound a little disgusting? That's true. These timid and solitary creatures have to be huddled in a cage with their own kind, which puts them under great pressure, and an abnormal diet with too much emphasis on coffee fruits also makes them suffer from other health problems. Coconut cats in cages begin to fight with each other, even bite off their legs, feces begin to carry blood, and death is even more common.

In Indonesia, the trapping of wild coconut cats is supposed to be strictly controlled, but they are caged by poachers and forcibly fed with coffee fruits to excrete more feces with coffee beans. and it's all for profiteering and the hypocritical pleasures of some people.

Kopi Luwak's business has been a great success, especially among consumers who spend a lot of money. If you are worried about preparing a birthday present for your tuhao friend, how about spending 6500 pounds on a Kopi Luwak wrapped in 24-karat gold foil at Harrods, the most famous and upscale department store in the UK? In fact, what you buy is no longer Kopi Luwak, just like Thai shit coffee and Brazilian sparrow shit coffee, which are popular all over the world, are just used to satisfy people's insatiable desire for this strange and superficial vanity.

A coconut cat is caged on a farm in Surabaya, Indonesia. Photo Source: theguardian.com

Kopi Luwak can't sacrifice wild animals. It's time to stop it.

At the beginning, I made an inadvertent purchase, which led to such incredible progress. At that time I introduced Kopi Luwak to the UK. It was a strange and novel short story, but now it has been overpriced and over-industrialised. People use it to cover themselves with a veil of hypocrisy to whitewash their abnormal taste and senseless vanity. I hope everyone can think about it, to satisfy their own interest can not be at the expense of wild animals, this cancer can no longer continue, it is time to stop.