Kopi Luwak - Bali's Infamous Cat Poop Coffee
Scheduling a tour for the coffee plantation, we had no idea that we’d be trying coffee with beans harvested from the poop of a mongoose. Yep, that’s right - cat poop coffee, or “cat poo chino” as our driver called it. You’re probably wondering who decided this was a good idea? And why would you try it? Well, we asked the same question.
So how did this weird, very popular, and expensive coffee come about? In the 19th century, coffee plantation workers were not allowed to pick coffee beans for themselves, so some workers got creative. They noticed that mongooses ate the coffee beans, but did not digest them and found full undigested beans in their poop. They harvested the beans out of the poop and created Kopi (the Indonesian word for coffee) Luwak (the Indonesian word for small ferret-like animal).
Mongoose poop with undigested coffee beans
Nowadays, there’s an extensive process for harvesting and cleaning the beans out of the poop before brewing this coffee, that’s why it’s so expensive. On our tour of the coffee plantation, we learned exactly how this coffee is created - starting with the mongoose itself. The plantation is very humane and treats their mongooses very well. They are given large enclosures to move around in and are released every week back into the wild. The plantation has specific people who capture and release the animals each week. We saw a few different colored mongooses and even saw two at a person’s house roaming around their kitchen, while exploring the streets of Ubud. The animals look cute, but can apparently be aggressive, so be careful!
During our tour of the plantation, we saw how the coffee beans looked during each step of the process. It was really interesting to see! Our tour guide was super informative and pointed out all the local herbs, spices, and fruits that were growing on the plantation too. She even picked us some fresh mangosteens (our favorite!).
After touring the planation and learning about the Luwak coffee process, we were given free samples of all of their coffees and teas (the Luwak coffee was extra because of its high cost). My favorites were the mangosteen and rosella teas and the vanilla coffee. My aunt loved the avocado and ginseng coffees.
You’re probably wondering why drink Luwak coffee when there are plenty of poop free coffee options? Well, it actually has some added health benefits. Mongooses are coffee snobs and carefully sort through all the coffee beans, discarding the low quality and damaged ones. So Luwak coffee is made using the highest quality beans. In addition, because the beans pass through the animal’s digestive system and interact with their stomach acid, the coffee is less acidic and does not cause stomach problems like regular coffee. It also has lower caffeine content, so is a great options for people sensitive to caffeine!
So how’d it taste? It had a delicious aroma and was very smooth to drink. Honestly, I’m not a coffee connoisseur, so it tasted like coffee to me! But as someone who gets very jittery from caffeine, I’m always looking for alternatives that will give me energy, but not put me over the edge. I highly recommend trying Bali’s infamous cat poop coffee - Kopi Luwak - if you find yourself in Indonesia. But, make sure you go to a place that treats their animals humanely! Let me know, would you try cat poop coffee?