Why Kopi Luwak is so expensive?

[montre]

In general, one cup of Kopi Luwak coffee can cost you $80-$100. So, what makes Kopi Luwak so expensive?

Reasons:

1. Civets, which are used for the production of this coffee, are rare animals. Their population is not much.
2. The production of Kopi Luwak is lower than the production of any coffee.
3. The process of procuring the beans is very long and intense.
4. Extra expenses are involved in taking care of the Civets.
5. As most beans are harvested in Indonesia, importing them to other parts of the world adds the cost.

 

[John P]

Well montre,

Here's the facts on the matter. It's a "gimmick" coffee. Outside of that, it's just not very good coffee procured by a horribly disgusting and abusive practice and has absolutely no place in the coffee business.

If you are not educated on the subject, here's some reading. Some don't know. Some are plain morons. And others have no ethics whatsoever. Bad coffee. Bad practice.

Kopi Luwak: curiosity kills the civet cats

The value of a good story: how to turn poop into gold

Say No to Kopi Luwack

World's most expensive coffee tainted by horrific civet abuse

Those who manage this site should be be ashamed for promoting it.

 

[PinkRose]

Those who manage this site should be be ashamed for promoting it.

They pay the Forum owners a monthly fee to be a supporting vendor. . . . If it were up to me, it would be gone! Including the annoying banner advertisement the top of the page.

Rose

 

[John P]

PinkRose,

I hear you.

Hello. Site owners. Don't take everyone's dollar. It makes you look bad. Very bad.

:shock:

 

[montre]

@John P,

I partially agree with you. But we must not put all Kopi Luwak in one category. There are few vendors who practice selling cheap quality of Kopi Luwak and that animal cruelty has been associated with the production of this coffee. However, we should not overlook those people who actually collect this coffee from the wild and not from the caged civets. CLuwak is one of those vendors. It sells only 100% genuine Kopi Luwak resulting from fully natural and wild environment.

People who never bought and tasted Kopi Luwak from an authentic place will surely have all the things to bad-mouth about Kopi Luwak. The exact taste of Kopi Luwak from authentic vendors and that from other vendors are completely different.

 

[John P]

montre,

"100% genuine" Really? At it's very best, it's substandard coffee. It's been known for years to be a gimmick coffee surrounded by a lot of Myth. If you bothered to read the articles, you would realize that it is "unacceptable, tastes bad, does not serve the farmer's interests, and takes away from the message of quality coffee..." It's just lousy coffee and has absolutely nothing to do with quality coffee or with progressing coffee standards. It's a bad value at almost any price.

Andrew Hetzel, coffee consultant, Member - SCAA Board of Directors, Q quality grader, Chairman SCAA Global education committee reminds us that even those who claim they are farmed from civets who run free, it's an unregulated system that's impossible to track and it's foolish to pay exorbitant prices for something that grades lower than Starbucks office coffee.

Andrew writes,

Rocky Rhodes of International Coffee Consulting Group offers a more detailed analysis and shares his experience with this coffee. “At a farm in East Java, I was given the opportunity to evaluate their lots of coffee, which they had separated into sizes: large, medium, and small. On this farm were caged Luwaks that fed on the exact same coffee, which was also included in the cupping. After cupping the four samples, it was apparent that Luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality.”

According to Rhodes, “Using the SCAA cupping scale, the Luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees. It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee. The medium-sized coffee, as an aside, scored the best due to overall flavor and balance. It was a full four points above the Luwak version.”​

​

For those of you who are reading this, do you take the word of reputable coffee professionals such as myself, Thompson Owen of Sweet Maria's, George Howell, Board members of the SCAA, so on and so forth, or do you want to be duped by a coffee novice or worse, a knowing coffee huckster?

In the interest of promoting quality coffee and furthering coffee education on this site, everyone who reads this post should ask for the removal of all Kopi Luwak advertising.

 

[peterjschmidt]

montre,

"100% genuine" Really? At it's very best, it's substandard coffee. It's been known for years to be a gimmick coffee surrounded by a lot of Myth. If you bothered to read the articles, you would realize that it is "unacceptable, tastes bad, does not serve the farmer's interests, and takes away from the message of quality coffee..." It's just lousy coffee and has absolutely nothing to do with quality coffee or with progressing coffee standards. It's a bad value at almost any price.

Andrew Hetzel, coffee consultant, Member - SCAA Board of Directors, Q quality grader, Chairman SCAA Global education committee reminds us that even those who claim they are farmed from civets who run free, it's an unregulated system that's impossible to track and it's foolish to pay exorbitant prices for something that grades lower than Starbucks office coffee.

Andrew writes,

​

For those of you who are reading this, do you take the word of reputable coffee professionals such as myself, Thompson Owen of Sweet Maria's, George Howell, Board members of the SCAA, so on and so forth, or do you want to be duped by a coffee novice or worse, a knowing coffee huckster?

In the interest of promoting quality coffee and furthering coffee education on this site, everyone who reads this post should ask for the removal of all Kopi Luwak advertising.

I would agree with all of that.

If somebody wants to throw their money away, hey, it's a free country. But the owners of this site should think carefully what they want to support and what they want this forum to stand for.

 

[montre]

Just an opinion by some critics

Thank you John for sharing what Andrew had said about this coffee. However, I will still favor Kopi Luwak because it is just a matter of opinion. Kopi Luwak has been in business for more than 20 years. This civet coffee has become an ultimate bling coffee not just by luck or trick; it is a celebrity in its own right. If it were simply a “bad”, “low quality” and “crap” coffee, as exclaimed by some critics, then how did it manage its way to CNN News, Oprah shows, and one of the biggest Hollywood films – The Bucket List, starring actors like Jack Nicholson, and Morgan Freeman?

The main reason why most coffee lovers misunderstand Kopi Luwak is that this coffee has become a most controversial beverage because of its production either by using caged civets, or by people who want to get rich by selling normal coffee in the name of Kopi Luwak. However, some scientists have developed a method to check the authentication of real Kopi Luwak. The study shows that real Kopi Luwak has higher levels of specific inositol and pyroglutamic acid, citric and malic acids.

Check out this link for detailed information about the study.

 

[eldub]

Lots of crap products reach celebrity status. Hype sells. Most everyone loves a story. I'll go with the opinions of the coffee experts over major media outlets every time.

 

[peterjschmidt]

In my humble opinion, there are a few reasons why civet coffee has reached the fame it has. There are too many people who have more money than sense. A good portion of the population will believe that something more expensive is better. They are the same people who will convince themselves their high-priced coffee (or car, watch, stereo, whatever) is better to avoid admitting to themselves they have wasted their money.

Montre, I would ask if you favor KL because you have a business interest in it? I wouldn't say anything against your personal preference - we all like certain things... My position is that if you put the best civet coffee next to a few very good Sumatra/Sulawesi/Java coffees, and tell me to pick out the best coffee, KL will never be the clear winner. Then add in the ridiculous price, and the contest is over.

I have genuine KL in my house and roast it often for an importer who sells it green and roasted. I know it's genuine. That doesn't change my opinion that there is no reason to drink it, even if it's a fraction of its price.

 

[John P]

montre,

These are not "critics" as you term it. These are some of the world's foremost coffee experts. You are a tremendously misinformed and/or uninformed person trying to make a buck off of total morons. Coffee professionals have known for years, far before the mention in the Bucket List, that it is a low quality offering.

You, obviously, are not a coffee professional or you wouldn't have such ridiculous arguments.
Media coverage means "good" ? WTF? Here are things covered by CNN, Oprah, and Hollywood movies: Murder, rape, incest, starvation, torture, war, famine, chemically altered foods, mad-cow disease, Brittany Spears, and Scientology... it was reported because it's controversial, and had been for many years prior. Just because YOU didn't know about it, doesn't mean us coffee professionals haven't for quite a long time.

There is no coffee farming going on here. There are no coffee farmers receiving lucrative paychecks here. This is a novelty item.
Wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[hiwud]

So I need to put up a few more posts and this seems a good place.
"gimmick",,,,"opera":-D "Hollywood movies" John ya actually beat me to the punch.

I live on a small Island in South East Asia,, my wife's family has been growing coffee naturally ( no chems no pesticides no ferts) for well over 100 years on the same land along with a variety of other "Jungle crops".
With her grandparents into their 70s we now manage the farm, and produce a fine Robusta bean that we've managed to market quite well as a single origin bean, strong .bold ,bitter(sort of) but with that distinct "earthy " flavor,, it did take some getting used to.
10 years ago I couldn't have told you what civet coffee was,,,never heard of it,, been drinking coffee since age 13, still never heard of it.
Along comes this cool little native(yes I said native,,) farm.
Fast forward a bit now to harvest season 9 years ago when I asked what the kids were looking for and picking up off the ground,,, imagine my surprise when I was told it was the poop from a "bearcat" that's what their called here,,, bear cats.
Poop from and animal ??? huh.... so I did some internet research and found plenty,,,wow the prices per cup WTF....

So I ask why do you not try to sell these "rare" coffee beans that command prices of such that just 1 kilo would sustain her family for a year,, ,,,By the way at the time I spoke not a word of her language..

The answer was handed to me in the way of a cup and 2 words (translated by the wife) as i sipped this odd brew she told me,,,(John yer goona luv this man),, remember its from the mouth of a 70 year old coffee farmer who grew up farming coffee and knows no other life except the coffee farm.
2 words,,, It's "weak" and "tasteless",,, telling me they only use it when all the other coffee is gone,,, meaning its their last resort..

We've tossed the idea around ONCE, of trying to market it,, lots of competition out there for such a "rare" coffee and prices from mild to wild,,,,so it does make one ask on the genuineness of said products,,, in most cases if your not the one picking up a turd full of beans you'll never really know,, and then there's the caged animals issue,,,one which warrants the extinction of this product all together and Id run out of genni fuel going on and on why.. Tell ya the truth,,,I don't want it associated with our farm or product, its overrated as hell and better money spend on anything but..

 

[montre]

Who the coffee experts are exactly, they are also humans like us, right? They also have the same taste buds on their tongue as we - the coffee lovers, have. Agreeing with other people’s opinions and not tempting to experience the reality on your own is not fair. Not only to you but it will be unfair to those people also who will read negative reviews about the product (which doesn’t deserve them) and will eventually change their mind not to try Kopi Luwak. I assure you that there are many people who are not rich but they tried Kopi Luwak and proclaimed that it worth the price. I can give you links to their reviews. Check out this link - Kopi Luwak Gold Label - Benkulu/Western Sumatra (100g) And ya, if I were given a choice to either choose Kopi Luwak or any other coffee then by all means I will give Kopi Luwak a try. Not because I’m closely associated with Cluwak but because of the fact that I am tempted to try something new in life.

 

[CoffeeLovers]

This Kopi Luwak has been discussed here in the previous post and I assert that expensive coffee should not be considered on how it is gathered and collected such as from the intestine of civet to its feces and that according to the article that coffee taste is different from those directly taken from the coffee plants. The coffee that is directly taken from plants is the same coffee eaten by civets since the beans after the civets excreted from the intestine did not change or digested.

That is why many coffee aficionados were fooled about the Kopi Luwak because the beans are still the same beans directly harvested from coffee plants. It only differs in the price because the one gathering the coffee from civets feces promotes that coffee from civets are more tastier and less acidic when in fact that the Kopi Luwak is the same beans directly taken from the coffee plants.

 

[eldub]

I understood both sides of the discussion.... until that last post above.