Have You Ever Tasted the Most Expensive Coffee in the World?
by Eunice Tan on 22/01/09 at 6:53 am
How we get the most expensive coffee in the world.
Does a cup of coffee always accompany you in the morning? Do you a coffee lover who cannot live without it? Have you ever tasted the most expensive coffee in the world? What coffee is the most expensive? If you ask this question to English people, the nation of the tea drinker will answer Civet Coffee. A pound of Civet Coffee will run you about US$300 or US$50 a cup. One of the reasons it is so pricey is because of the unique process through when the coffee bean goes from Indonesia where it is harvested to the roaster.
In England, Civet Coffee is sold with the price £50. Possibly when hearing this coffee origin, coffee lover will tremble. A coffee lover says that in fact she is rather worried before trying, but evidently she really likes it. A nocturnal animal calls Civet feasts on the matured coffee berry once it falls on the tree. The civet can choose the best coffee seed based on his instinct. It then passes through the animal and into the waste it goes. Farmers then come and pick the coffee out of the waste, process and clean it then send it to the roasters. In a year, we can only get less than 200 kilograms Civet Coffee in the world.
The civet does not digest the inner bean of the berry, but it has been proposed that enzymes in the civet’s stomach add to the coffee’s flavor by breaking down the proteins. That gives bitter taste for the coffee. The beans are defecated, still covered in some inner layers of the berry. The beans are washed cleanly. Then a light roast process follows in order to not destroy the complex flavors that develop through the process. Some people say that the beans may be regurgitated instead of defecated.
In my country Indonesia, we call the civet coffee as “Kopi Luwak”. “Kopi Luwak” is not foreign words for an English, Peter Jones, who runs a famous cafe in Sloane Square London, which sold espresso and latte. Do you want to know from where does Jones get the raw material that make his cafe famous for? He buys 60 exclusive packages of the Jamaica Blue Mountain mixture and “Kopi Luwak” of Indonesia. Peter Jones sells a blend of “Kopi Luwak” and Jamaica Blue Mountain as ” Raro Coffee” for £50 (=US$99) a cup. It has also recently become available at Selfridges, London, as part of their “Edible” range of exotic foods.
Civet Coffee as the most expensive coffee in the world, is sold for between US$120 and US$600 per pound. It is sold mainly in Japan and the United States. Also, one small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia, has Civet coffee on the menu at A$ 50 (=US$48) per cup. The café sells approximately four cups a week, which has gained nationwide Australian press.
As my country Indonesia is the origin of Civet Coffee, customer can get much cheaper price of a cup of it. A franchised café shop name “Kopi Luwak” sells it at US$ 8 per cup. It is much cheaper than the Australian who sells it at US$48 per cup.
Photo by author.
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27 Comments
jimy1666
Jan 22nd, 2009
Good job and nice rticle, I like it.
Jane Holliday
Jan 22nd, 2009
Didnt know that,thanks for the information
Debra.
Jan 22nd, 2009
Great article, very informative. I love coffee. Thanks for sharing. God bless.
Kim Buck
Jan 22nd, 2009
Wasn’t Kopi Luwak mentioned in The Bucket List?
Liane Schmidt
Jan 22nd, 2009
Whoa………. a $50 cup of coffee!! Great article.
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
nutuba
Jan 22nd, 2009
Wow that’s fascinating! At $50 per cup, I think I’ll pass.
Nice article!
papaleng
Jan 22nd, 2009
a very interesting and informative article.. We do have a similar type of coffee as Kopi Luwak but I forgot the name just the smae this coffee type is really expensive.
Johnny Yuma
Jan 23rd, 2009
Best coffe I ever tasted is Brim back in the 1970s. When I was a boy a cup of coffee was only 10 cents at the restaurants my parents would visit. Now it is over a dollar. If you can send me a cup at eight dollars plus postage I might take it depending on what the shipping costs would be.
From one coffee drinker to another–Thanks for posting.
Johnny Yuma
AC Hamilton III
Jan 24th, 2009
Hey, if the samples are free, I am trying, but if I have to pay that, first I am dying. Great article!
Sakuragi
Jan 26th, 2009
Hey! nice article!
eddiego65
Jan 28th, 2009
So expensive! I can’t afford it. Anyway, nice article.
Eunice Tan
Jan 30th, 2009
Dear all,
Thanks for your comment.
Kim, I don’t know about Bucket List, but I want to watch the film someday.
Johnny, are you serious?
Ruby Hawk
Feb 3rd, 2009
I wouldn’t even want to afford something so expensive.If I could I would spend the money for something else. It would be so irresponsible to spend so much for coffee.
Eunice Tan
Feb 4th, 2009
Hi Ruby,
I personally agree with you. However there are some rich people who look for something unique and rare to be enjoyed. Kopi Luwak is ’something’ for coffee lover.
Thanks for your comment, Ma’am!
BC Doan
Feb 5th, 2009
Great information!
Yovita Siswati
Feb 5th, 2009
hhmmmm Eunice, I love kopi Luwak, thank god we live in Indonesia, so that we can enjoy it with much lower price haha..
Daisy Peasblossom
Feb 10th, 2009
Coffee went out of my diet last summer–my tummy refuses it in any form. When I could drink it, my favorite was Millhouse. I’m afraid that Kopi Luwak will be a drink I only read about. But it sure is interesting to learn about the process. (And I thought the way hominy is made was disgusting!) Good article, I enjoyed reading it.
trishia
Feb 10th, 2009
Great and informative article! I’m a true coffee drinker;but I’ll have to pass this up for now.
karen
Feb 19th, 2009
Very interesting article…I enjoyed reading it! Thank you.
Alberto
Mar 9th, 2009
If you want more serious info about Kopi Luwak or just want to try it, email me to: info@realkopiluwak.com
Alvin Lim
Mar 15th, 2009
US 48 ?!!? Even US 8 is freaking expensive for me.
Monica Sappleton
Mar 28th, 2009
This is a very informative article Eunice. I’ve learned from it a lot of things that I never knew. Thank you so much for sharing.
cleblanc
Apr 9th, 2009
great article.
stephencardiff
Apr 14th, 2009
Thats nuts 50 bucks for a cup of coffee bet you dont even get toast with that either.. Total rip off curiosity could tempt me though… ??? Hummmmm
Momma Tells
Apr 20th, 2009
I enjoyed your article.
I had some wonderful coffee when I visited Indonesia, but it wasn’t that brand. It was served cold in little cups with a lot of grounds in the bottom. Tasty!
My best to you,
Momma Tells
JC
Nov 2nd, 2009
Eunice, wow, same topic here. Yup this Kopi Luwak cafe serves the real one. In Semarang airport it’s available with Rp. 80,000 a cup. But, there is also normal coffee with 3% civet coffee in it.
Nice article!
Jane Jane
Nov 4th, 2009
I’m not a coffee drinker and reading this,I don’t wanna be.
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