The secret of gourmet coffee

Nouak coffee, produced in Indonesia, sells for as much as $1000 per kilogram, making it the most expensive coffee in the world today. Its processing process is so unique that it needs to be eaten by Asian civets and excreted in the form of feces in order to have the irreplaceable mellow aroma of other coffee. Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada found that this is because the civet's digestion breaks down proteins in coffee beans into small molecules, making coffee beans more fragrant when roasted.

In addition, some of the proteins that bring slight bitterness to the coffee are completely removed in the process. Due to the unrest in Indonesia, the annual output of Nouak coffee has recently dropped to less than 230 kilograms. Researchers are trying to use a new process to simulate the digestion of civets, but others point out that the value of Nouak coffee is its rarity, an attempt that is likely to be thankless.