What is the difference between the Indonesian Kopi Luwak and the Ethiopian Kopi Luwak? which is better?

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For more than a year, the person who is the best at "gossip" in the international coffee industry is Kopi Luwak of Indonesia, and the international media CNN, ABC, CBS, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post have all competed to report the legendary civet coffee. Of course, Taiwan has not been idle. In early March this year, the domestic media revealed that the 500 yuan per cup of civet coffee sold by Taiwan sugar was not authentic, causing an uproar. Musk Coffee seems to be the queen of the coffee world. The latest research report points out that the molecular structure and aroma of coffee fermented by the body digestion system are indeed different from those of ordinary water-washed or sun-dried beans, and the beans pulled out by Indonesian civets and Ethiopian civets are different due to different intestinal bacteria. What is even more reported is that some people have invited elephants to help increase the production capacity of fermentation in the body.

The Indonesian Kopi Luwak was exposed by the US National Geographic magazine as early as the 1980s. In the 1990s, several roasters in the United States also introduced it at a price of US $6000.The price was too high and did not become a fad. coupled with the growing conflict between Indonesian guerrillas and government forces in coffee growing areas, coffee farmers dare not risk their lives to collect civet droppings, and production capacity has dropped to less than 230kg a year. No wonder civet coffee has become a legendary coffee in the past year or two.

Massimo, a food scientist at University of Guelph University in Ontario, Canada.

Marcone) in order to unveil the mystery of civet coffee, he began a series of studies in 2003. He does not believe that only Indonesia can produce civet coffee in the world. After several searches, another species of musk cat, Civetticitis civetta, was found in the forests of Ethiopia, the native country of Arabica beans, which looks different from Indonesia's Paradoxurus hermaphroditus.

Ma Kong will collect Indonesian and Ethiopian civet fecal coffee, roasted and cup test, found that the two flavor is obviously different, Indonesian civet coffee can not be replaced by Ethiopia, only the same through the civet digestion tube of coffee, will get a different flavor? One reason is that Indonesian civets eat mostly robusta fruit, while Ethiopian civets eat 100% Arabica fruit. The second reason is that the bacteria in the digestive system of the two are different. The degree of fermentation of coffee beans in the digestive tract of Indonesian civets is much higher than that of Ethiopian civets, so the flavor of Indonesian civet coffee is unique.

Macon's research report published in the latest episode of Food Research International points out that civet coffee beans from Indonesia or Ethiopia are harder and brittle, less neat and darker than traditional water-washed or sun-dried beans. This is because coffee beans are acidified by enzymes, pore acid bacteria and gastric juice in the digestive tract, and the protein of coffee beans is decomposed. Interestingly, the protein of coffee is the main cause of bitterness after baking, while the protein of civet coffee has been partially cleaved. no wonder civet coffee has almost no bitterness after baking, which is one of its characteristics. In addition, civet coffee has a strong earthy flavor, even with some forest flavor, and has a good consistency, which may be related to the deterioration of amino acids in beans.

The report also points out that although the flavor of Indonesian Kopi Luwak cannot be replicated with Ethiopian civets, don't be discouraged, because improved traditional washing methods may also replicate the unique flavor of Indonesian civets. Ma Kong believes that when raw beans are treated with water, they also go through a fermentation process similar to that of the intestinal tract, and some washing plants add lactic acid bacteria to the sink to speed up the fermentation of raw beans. Ma Kong suggested that interested people might as well add lactic acid bacteria from the intestines of Indonesian musk cats to the sink to replicate a very similar flavor.

But Michael Beech, the head of Raven's Brew Coffee Inc Coffee in the United States, has another strange trick, saying that instead of waiting for Indonesia to supply enough civet coffee, it would be better to get up and look for a substitute for fermented beans in the body. Elephants are good mass production machines. Beek said: "We have planned to produce elephant coffee and are going to feed this herd of parentless elephants with coffee fruits at an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka. After collecting elephant droppings and filtering, we can supply unlimited quantities of fermented coffee in the body. It can be called a good thing to give back some of the proceeds to the elephant. "

If the lactic acid bacteria water-washing fermentation method proposed by Macon and the elephant coffee that Beek will soon launch win a good reputation, the Indonesian Kopi Luwak will no longer be able to have an "affair." By the way, there are masked palm civet and coffee trees in Taiwan, so why doesn't anyone want to pile them up? try whether masked palm civet coffee in Taiwan is popular.