Indonesia's unique raw materials make the world's most expensive coffee

Civets, which live on some Indonesian islands, are the main "suppliers" of cat poop coffee (file photo)

Do you know where the most expensive coffee in the world comes from? The answer is Indonesia. What was even more strange was that the raw material of this coffee actually came from cat feces! At the Indonesian Pavilion at the World Expo, people can taste this strange coffee.

Recently, the Indonesian Pavilion displayed the star of the Indonesian Food Festival-Cat Poop Coffee. A cup of coffee with 4 ounces can be sold for 168 US dollars (about RMB 1400)! The rarity of this coffee is that it comes from the droppings of a wild Indonesian civet.

Cat poop coffee is a traditional specialty of some Indonesian islands such as Java, Sumatra, Bali and Sulawesi. The civet contains this unique coffee in its feces after eating local coffee cherries.

In fact, the official name of cat poop coffee is Kopi Luwak. Kopi means coffee in Indonesian, and Luwak is a wild Indonesian civet.

Sheng Zhen, a staff member of the Indonesian Pavilion, said that in order to get precious "cat feces coffee beans", local farmers in Indonesia would catch civets into cages to feed them themselves, and coffee merchants simply packed an island to raise these cats freely, so that they could enjoy the environment of natural sunshine and rain.

"Civets eat and poop by themselves. You can't force them to eat and poop, so the coffee beans in the final feces are very valuable!" Sheng Zhen said. This rare coffee is known to produce only 500 pounds a year.

Sheng Zhen showed the distillation process of cat excrement coffee on the spot."12 grams of cat excrement coffee, with 50 to 55 grams of water for distillation, so that the final coffee is the most mellow." The coffee grounds left behind by cat poop coffee are also very unique, smooth and without small holes, which ordinary coffee cannot do.

The raw materials of this coffee are difficult to obtain, the production process is also very complicated, and it must go through strict sanitary procedures, such as drying, roasting, brewing and other complex procedures. However, the final finished coffee produces a unique aroma and is therefore expensive. In Indonesian coffee shops, a 20-gram cat poop coffee costs 380 yuan, much higher than other types of coffee.

In October 2003, Oprah Winfrey, the "Queen of Talk Show" in the United States, brewed cat poop coffee on the spot on the show, attracting topics. In the TVB TV series "Pioneer of Law and Politics" and "Harmony," the characters also mentioned cat excrement coffee. According to the exhibition hall staff, now drink a cup of cat feces coffee in Hong Kong, asking for 220-298 yuan, there are still coffee lovers flock to.

(Editor's note: Coffee sounds)