The world's most expensive luxury, Luwak coffee, expensive civet droppings.

Supandi opened the package of banana leaves taken out of the cloth bag, revealing two strange 5-inch brown cylinders that looked like a boundary between fir cones and peanut energy bars.

Expensive civet droppings

"these are good things," he said proudly. " Peng Wenguang, a farm worker in Lampong province, Sumatra, Indonesia, touches his storage as carefully as he touches an antique crystal vase. "they should be worth a lot of money."

These inexperienced people will not take a second look at civet droppings, the raw material for the world's most expensive coffee, which was all the rage at the beginning of this year.

Late April, Peter, London? Peter Jones launched a charity promotion of Luwak (or Indonesian civet coffee) (Kopi luwak) and Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (Jamaican Blue Mountain), which sold for 50 pounds ($99) a cup. In the West, the retail price is usually close to 600 pounds per kilogram, while Indonesian producers sell unroasted coffee beans for about 100 pounds per kilogram, but that is still several times the price of the best Arabica beans.

Its exaggerated price is due to the unique process of coffee beans going from bushes to cups. When wild palm cats hunt at night, they choose scarlet berries (components of Arabica and Robusta varieties) as a side dish for staple wild birds and other small animals. These oversized cats, with a keen sense of smell and a long tail, digest berries for up to 72 hours and then drain them into fir cone-shaped cylinders.

Peng Wenguang, like many Indonesians, uses only one name. He collects cat droppings and sells them to manufacturers such as Susanto. Susanto, the manager of the fish fry hatchery, started the business eight years ago after hearing that Luwak coffee might disappear.

"We remove the dirt from the beans, remove three layers of skin, and then air-dry them," he said at the production center. In order to prove that my product is genuine Luwak coffee, I only sell green coffee beans. Once the coffee has been roasted, no one will know what's in it. There may only be 30% Luwak coffee in it. " He asked me to keep the location of his factory secret to prevent thieves from stealing his products.

Given its production process, it is clear that there is not too much coffee produced in feces. Susanto estimates that only about 40% of the feces are coffee beans that can be baked, and more disappear during the roasting process.

Is it really delicious?

But is it true that these coffee beans are different from those harvested in the traditional way? Canadian food scientist Massimo? Massimo Marcone did some experiments to find out what was going on in the civets' digestive tract. He concluded that during civet digestion, enzymes break down proteins in coffee beans that are thought to be the source of coffee bitterness. As a result, the taste of Luwak coffee beans will be more smooth. The color, shape and other differences are also obvious compared with Colombian coffee beans.

But unless its taste is obviously different, all these differences will be worthless. I tasted a few cups of coffee made by Susanto. He put the beans in a clay pan on the wood fire and stir-fried them by hand for 7 to 10 minutes. Susanto's cousin Suswati said: "the key is not to let the beans stand still." He is in charge of the process of fried beans.

The traditional grinding method is to use a clove pestle and a stone mortar, but Susanto admits that modern grinding methods produce a superior flavor. The taste is delicious! I'm a regular coffee drinker, and I have to say it's the best coffee I've ever had. It is difficult to describe its flavor in words: a hint of chocolate, a hint of dirt and a hint of traditional Chinese medicine. What really attracts attention, however, is the excitement caused by smoothness and lack of caffeine. After three espresso cups, I thought I might be a little dizzy, but I stood firmly on the floor. In short, this kind of coffee has all the advantages, but it doesn't have any disadvantages that most coffees have. If I had the money to drink it often, I would.

Ironically, for such a delicious luxury, Ruwak's life began with the abandonment of the Dutch, when Indonesia was a Dutch colony. "the locals are not allowed to drink coffee," Susanto said. "all coffee belongs to the Dutch, so workers can only drink what they can get. After the Dutch leave, they can get the full harvest, but they don't like regular coffee so much. As a result, Ruwak coffee developed into a scarce drink, and the price began to rise steadily. "