The hidden secret of the world's most expensive coffee

Would you like to drink coffee made from animal waste? This lovely tropical mammal has a unique ability: its excrement is the source of the world's most expensive coffee.

In addition, many civets do not have access to clean water or communicate with other partners. For these nocturnal animals, they have to endure the noise caused by traffic and tourists during the day, which is especially bad.

Is it wild or caged?

This is the "machine" of making luxury goods. Experts believe that the reason why Nouak coffee is so special is that wild civets choose high-quality coffee cherries to eat. Keeping them in cages and feeding old coffee cherries will only produce shoddy products.

Moreover, a coffee expert quoted the American Special Coffee Association, a trade organization for boutique roasters and baristas, as saying that Nouak coffee is not suitable for beginners. Although the civet's digestion does make the coffee taste smoother, it also makes the unique acidity and flavor of the coffee disappear. The captive civet, most likely caught in the wild, is looking pitifully at the world outside the wire cage. Locals put them in cages to make the world's most expensive Nouak coffee. Photography: NICKY LOH, GETTY IMAGES FOR WSPA

There is no way to tell whether a bag of Nuwak coffee comes from a wild civet or is caged. In 2013, the BBC undercover investigation found that coffee produced by caged civets in inhumane environments would be marked as wild civets exported to Europe.

Even Tony Wild, which introduced Nouak coffee to the Western world, wrote a warning for the Guardian. 'The situation has become more and more industrialized, with abuse and counterfeiting everywhere,'he said.

There is no certification scheme to ensure that coffee marked "wild" lives up to its name, while coffee certification bodies with regard to the growing and production environment refuse to certify any Nuwak coffee.

The New York-based Rainforest Alliance and other prominent coffee certification bodies have issued their own certification standards based on the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) standards, banning the capture and hunting of wild animals on plantations. In particular, it is forbidden in Indonesia to cage civets to produce coffee.

Another important sustainable coffee certification, UTZ, also forbids caging wild animals on plantations and says it will never certify Nuwak coffee.

Alex Morgan of the Rainforest Alliance (which adheres to the SAN standard) says the risk of certifying Nuwak coffee is too high to determine whether the beans come entirely from wild civets.

"I personally suggest avoiding this kind of coffee because it is probably made by civets in cages," he said. "