The Origin of Musk Coffee simulated production of microbial fermentation Technology of Kopi Luwak

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The origin of Kopi Luwak

Civet coffee is derived from "civet", she naturally chooses the most ripe and sweetest fruit, so she will eat the ripe red coffee cherries, including coffee pulp and coffee beans. The enzymes in the digestive tract of civet will combine with coffee beans and destroy the protein, so the bitter taste of coffee will be reduced. However, the hard coffee seeds cannot be digested and are excreted after a unique fermentation process. The coffee beans are still coated with sheepskin. After washing, drying and roasting, it becomes civet coffee. Traditionally, coffee fruit is washed or sun-dried to remove the peel, pulp and sheepskin layer, and finally the coffee beans are removed. However, Civet Coffee uses natural fermentation in vivo to remove the coffee beans, so it has a special flavor.

Indonesian people found that the coffee beans fermented by the civet stomach were particularly thick and fragrant, so they collected civet droppings, sifted out coffee beans, brewed and drank them. Due to the scarcity of production and the high price, civet coffee was the most expensive coffee in the world, and civet droppings became the most expensive droppings in the world.

Experts who have tasted civet coffee have made polarized comments. Some people compare it to the best coffee in the world. It is quite thick. The taste is unusual. It is difficult to describe it. It has a bit of earthy smell. It has a slightly choking taste and a visceral taste. It will not go away in the mouth for a long time until the last drop. Some people say it's hard to swallow and it's not worth spending money on stinky coffee.

Generally speaking, Indonesian coffee has an earthy and herbal flavor, and its consistency is also the highest in all continents, but the earthy flavor and consistency of civets are stronger, the consistency is almost close to syrup, and the aroma is very special. If you don't like Indonesian coffee in the first place, you will definitely hate civets. If you prefer the earthy smell of Indonesian aged beans or Indian wind beans, you may like civets with similar flavor.

Because the production of civet coffee is very limited, so the price is very expensive, can often taste, a cup of civet coffee every day probably not many nobles. How precious is the taste of cat poop coffee? People who like civet coffee say that this coffee tastes valuable, even if it is expensive, it is worth it. People with mental disorders drink civet coffee, even if the price is high, knowing that this coffee is noble, no matter how expensive it is, they can't drink it.

Cat poop coffee is one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

Coffee beans can cost hundreds of dollars per pound, and a cup can sell for more than 200 yuan.

This heavy-sounding coffee, made in Indonesia, is made from coffee beans plucked from civet poop.

Indonesians have found that civet cats like to eat coffee fruit, but cannot digest the hard core, which is then excreted in the feces.

These discharged coffee beans have been fermented by the civet stomach and are particularly fragrant.

Some people collect civet droppings, sift out coffee beans, and make cat poop coffee.

Due to the scarcity of production, cat feces coffee prices have remained high.

That led to an opportunity for a startup in New York called Afineur.

Afineur's main product now is cat poop coffee, but it has nothing to do with civet cats.

The company uses microbial fermentation to mimic the fermentation of coffee beans in the stomach of a civet.

In a way that makes it easier for people to accept, achieve a cat-poop coffee-like flavor.

The founders of this company are Camille Delebecque and Deterre.

The two went to high school together, Deterre graduated from college and went to the wine brand Orange Mansions and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Delebecque has always been interested in coffee, working on a project called "Coffee Addiction" at Harvard.

In 2014, they co-founded Afineur in New York, which uses microbial fermentation to make cat poop coffee.

Afineur implements a highly controlled fermentation process by trial and error based on synthetic ecology.

Microbes ferment directly on green green coffee beans, and enzymes produced by microorganisms cause special chemical reactions inside coffee beans.

The new cat poop coffee takes the civet out of its division of labor and replaces it with microbes, greatly increasing yields and lowering prices.

Cat poop coffee from Indonesia costs $600 a pound, while Afineur's cat poop coffee costs $69 a pound.

What's even more remarkable is that the company is doing something that could change the coffee industry and even revolutionize the food industry.

Traditional coffee making has only two ways to control flavor, one is to select beans, and the other is to roast.

Afineur adds a way to control taste: artificial microbial fermentation.

All coffee beans in the future may be fermented by artificial microorganisms to create more coffee flavors.

This method is not only used in coffee, but many foods in the food industry have fermentation processes.

This also means that the method of artificial microbial fermentation can also be applied to these foods.

For example, many famous wines such as Maotai can only be produced in special places. Even if the same process and raw materials are used, they cannot be made in other places.

This is because there are special microbial flora in the local area. It is said that the flavor of Maotai is the result of co-fermentation of more than 100 kinds of microorganisms.

Previously this fermentation process was natural, but with the development of biotechnology, companies such as Afineur may be able to simulate natural fermentation processes by artificial microbial fermentation to form similar flavors.

In addition to white wine, there are soy sauce, sauerkraut, cheese, yogurt and many other fermented foods.

Theoretically, it can be improved, optimized, shortened and increased by artificial microbial fermentation.

Afineur next wants to use fermentation to change more foods, and their second product is chocolate.

Through artificial microbial fermentation of organic cocoa beans, Afineur produces chocolate with reduced sugar content, bringing more pronounced chocolate flavor, subtle spice and ripe mango flavor, and especially increased antioxidant and vitamin B content.

Although Afineur is only a start-up, its product development ideas may have a huge impact on the food industry.

Through artificial microbial fermentation, precise control of fermentation process and final taste, this may be the future of the food industry.

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