As it is. The most expensive coffee in the world is defecated by an animal. A civet to be more specific. It is the kopi luwak or civet coffee.The original recipe takes advantage of the faeces of the civet, fed with coffee berries.The genesis of civet coffee is still unknown, but its execution, mainly in the islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali, -and also in Celebes, the Philippines, East Timor, Vietnam and a part of India-, is basically based on in feeding these mammals fruits of the coffee plantsand pick them up after the animal droppings. The civet does not fully digest the ripe coffee bean and the enzymes in its stomach change it and give it the characteristics that make it unique.
The organism of the civet takes advantage of the pulp of the berry but the seed does not digest it and returns it enriched to the earth. That is why it is so precious. The civet has this extraordinary capacity and that is why this process cannot be carried out with other animals. The subsequent cleaning of the Arabica or Robusta coffee bean and its roasting and grinding are carried out by the workers of the producing companies.
And that is why it is currently the most expensive variety, with a price of about 400 euros per kilogram.Its sale is carried out mainly in Japan and the United States, but its consumption is spreading and it is already possible to find it in many other places, although in small quantities.
PETA warns of mistreatment in coffee production
The Peta organization , People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is clear: caged animals, poorly fed and with erratic behavior are some of the practices rooted in the civet coffee industry.
The organization highlights that it is an industry with almost no regulation. There are villages in Indonesia in which the entire population is involved in the production of civet coffee, each family usually has 10 to 20 caged animals,” they say from the organization.
Incaptivity the Asian civet, which in the wild feeds sporadically on coffee berries , consumes for a month the coffee beans that they would eat throughout the year; while they are crammed into small enclosures and deprived of the company of their peers.
As a result of such a diet, the animals develop nutritional deficiencies and lose part of their fur, in addition to being more prone to disease .
It is estimated that each civet is capable of digesting an average of 25 grains per day . And that is why in a large part of the farms this amount is greatly exceeded, and that is the main reason that kopi luwak reaches such a high price.
In addition, the deprivation of liberty entailsneurotic behaviors in animals , such as frantically pacing in the cage, anxiously biting the bars or constant head movements, and depressions that drag these little cats to death.
On the other hand, the caged civet can also die from depression . Peta notes, however, that some farmers release civets that have survived three years in captivity, but then fail to ensure the mammals’ survival after losing their natural abilities.
