The best coffee produced there is an introduction to the cultivation of coffee-producing countries in the world.

If the most expensive is the best, there is no doubt that it is Corby Ruwak. After all, the adjective "best" is a matter of opinion.

The best coffee in the world: Corby Ruwak

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. In late April, London's Peter Jones department store launched a charity promotion of Luwak 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 Marconi (Massimo Marcone) has done some experiments to find out what's 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. " If demand for Luwak coffee, which is difficult to mass produce, remains at the current level, then the price of Luwak coffee may continue to rise because it has become more and more scarce. Susanto said he produced 175kg four years ago, compared with 40kg last year, which will be difficult for him to achieve this year. The total amount last year was about 400kg to 500kg. The living environment of civets has been threatened by climate change and deforestation, which has led to a sharp decline in its population. "the harvest season for robusta coffee used to be from December to March and from February to July in Arabica, but now the climate is unstable, so production has declined," Susanto said. There is nothing we can do about it because everything is one. According to government statistics, deforestation in Indonesia is happening at a rate of 3.5 hectares per minute, and it is an even more serious problem because the destruction of the living environment of civets is constantly forcing them to venture into farms to find food. As a result, farmers are hunting civets more frequently to protect their chickens and ducks. Supandi, a farm worker, said: "many people don't know that these coffee beans can be sold at a high price. Even those who know will prefer to kill civets because their livestock are more valuable than centimeters of feces. " Susanto has encouraged compassionate farmers to catch civets and give them to him so that he can lock them up and feed them with berries. "it won't work," he said. The quality of coffee is not as good as before. Wild musk cats are obviously better at picking berries, which we think are good berries, but maybe civets don't. " Olivier Tichit, director of CafCo, a company that also sells Luwak coffee in Sumatra, believes that the destruction of the civet's habitat is the most critical point. "the more people protect the environment, the more likely the civets will survive, and then they will come to eat coffee beans." CafCo is. Attempts to produce Luwak coffee in Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries where civets live have all failed. "this kind of coffee is unique and is a specialty of Indonesia," Tish said. It's like finding a diamond in a stone.