Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world, accounting for 18%. But coffee from feces of animals from Vietnam is most famous.

He leads a nocturnal lifestyle, sleeps during the day, choosing secluded places, for example, hollow trees. By the way, he climbs trees very well. There are 30 subspecies of this musang.

Palm marten is omnivorous; coffee is not its main food. In the diet, the animal and various other fruits, as well as insects, worms, bird eggs and even small animals.

Enzymes, thanks to which coffee grains processed in the animal’s stomach acquire a peculiar taste, are produced only six months a year.

Coffee Luwak

This type of coffee is named in Indonesia, where it is also produced. In Vietnam, it is called "jung." Coffee from feces of animals from Vietnam has become the hallmark of the country.

The fact that it was here that the business was put on stream did not reduce the price of the product, but increased the production of expensive grains due to the following:

• Special farms where musangs were kept were created.
• The animals are specially caught precisely at the time when they produce the necessary enzymes.
• In the corresponding period, the palm marten is fed exclusively with the fruits of the coffee tree.

After the period of production of the enzyme passes, the animals are released. At this time, excursions are organized for tourists who are in the country, on the plantation. And they can see the whole process of producing unique coffee.

The cost of a product consists of several factors:

1. Farmers manually collect the excrement produced by the musanga after they absorb coffee fruits.
2. After collecting, you need to properly process and dry everything, and this is also done manually.
3. The possibility of obtaining grains in a limited period of the year also increases the price of the product.

On average, lewak in Europe costs $ 150 per 100 grams. Often this variety is mixed with other grains of coffee, which gives the drink an even more intense aroma and taste.

We are talking about the most expensive Luwak coffee from animal droppings. This type of coffee has useful properties, pleasant aroma and unusual taste, which are due to the fluffy animals of the civet family. They are called musangs, martens or civet. Real original Luwak or turd coffee is produced in Indonesia, where civet live in the wild. There they eat fresh ripe coffee fruits, picking them directly from the branches.

In the process of eating coffee berries, animal Luwak eats only flesh, and grain enters the stomach and intestines as a whole. There it is processed by gastric secrets containing a special enzyme cibetin, which subsequently gives the grains a special delicate taste without undue bitterness. Locals collect animal droppings, wash and dry in the sun.

Using this specific processing method, the most expensive poop coffee in Indonesia is obtained, the very real Luwak coffee. Original coffee has an exceptional taste and aroma. The cost of coffee from excrement is about $ 100 per cup of finished drink.

And this is not surprising. Indeed, in Indonesia, where coffee is made from poop, musanga live free in natural conditions. These furry creators of the most expensive litter coffee do not even breed in captivity. Therefore, the answer to the question of how much Luwak coffee costs is unequivocal - very, very expensive. Animals select the most delicious and ripe berries, and from 1 kg of berries you will receive only 50 g of valuable beans of mine coffee. It is also interesting that the enzyme necessary for receiving Luwak coffee is produced in the civet body only 6 months a year - therefore, locals receive coffee from excrement only for half a year. The production of the most expensive litter coffee is not more than a few hundred kilograms in one year from all over Sumatra.

Coffee is considered a very popular drink in the world. After oil, this is the best-selling product. The number of coffee fans totals more than 3 billion people. Morning aromatic drink made from coffee beans has long been considered a recognized attribute of a successful person. According to statistical surveys, every day people drink more than 2.3 billion cups of this delicious drink.

Experts have compiled a list of the 10 most expensive coffee in the world, which in many countries are famous as a gourmet drink with an exceptional aroma and taste. Below is a dozen, which includes the most expensive coffee in the world. An exotic animal was involved in the production, the beloved coffee of the Popes is also among the best and most expensive coffee. Like the best varieties of arabica - rare, sometimes unique.

10th place - Coffee Yauco Selecto AA, $ 24

Coffee Yauco Selecto AA

One of the rarest varieties of arabica Grand Cru. Its place of origin is the Yauco Mountains in the Cordilleras. In the 19-20 centuries, this place is rightfully considered one of the best for the growth of coffee. The shape of the grains is just perfect. To taste, coffee with a nut-chocolate aroma resembles a pleasant, harmonious and unobtrusive sweet mixture of cream and chocolate with malt. And the aftertaste of spices exceeds all expectations. This coffee is considered the favorite drink of the popes.

9th Place - Starbucks Rwanda Blue Bourbon, $ 24

This coffee was first known in 2004. Starbucks-Rwanda has become a global pioneer. And now local residents pay special attention to this variety. The pleasant sour taste of the drink with the taste of spices makes this coffee unique.

8th place - Kona Coffee (Hawaii), $ 34

The birthplace of this coffee is on the slopes of the volcanoes Gualalai and Mauna Loa in the Kona region of the Big Island in Hawaii. Today it is the most popular expensive coffee in the world. Only in this region with its rare weather conditions can you grow grains of this unique coffee.

7th place - Los Plains, $ 40

The taste of this coffee is unforgettable - basic fruity notes complement the pleasant floral finish. Having tasted this coffee, it is difficult to forget its sweet, light floral smell with hints of cocoa. In 2006, this expensive drink received the highest award of the Quality Cup, gaining almost 95 points out of 100 possible.

6th place - Blue Mountain, $ 49

The softness of taste attracts fans of quality coffee from the Blue Mountains. This variety has a pleasant aroma and lack of bitterness. Today, Blue Mountain is one of the most popular in the world. Almost all coffee is exported to eastern countries, expensive grains in Japan received a special demand - local residents highly value high-quality coffee.

5th place - Fazenda Santa Ains, $ 50

Hazel Santa Ains

This Brazilian drink is considered one of the best in the world and the most expensive and high-quality coffee in Brazil. Chocolate-flavored citrus aroma is very popular in the northern hemisphere - the USA and Canada are the main consumers of this precious aromatic coffee. In 2006, recognized as one of the best coffee in the world.

4th place - El Inherto, $ 50

The birthplace of coffee is Guatemala, where it has been grown for more than two centuries. Perhaps that is why this delicious expensive drink has received many prestigious awards.

3rd place - Coffee from St. Helena, $ 79

On a small stretch of St. Helena, coffee has been grown for over 250 years. The area on which grains grow is only 47 square meters. m. Coffee from this island is an environmentally friendly drink, because for its growth use only natural means for fertilizer.

2nd place - Hacienda La Esmeralda, $ 104

Near Baru Mountain in Western Panama, coffee beans grow that are harvested exclusively by hand. All coffee is checked for damage and defects, each grain is weighed. Coffee beans are slightly fried, which gives them a light spicy aroma with a chocolate-fruity taste, which is very popular among coffee fans.

Hacienda La Esmeralda is a multiple winner of international quality competitions. Over the past few years, its price has increased dramatically. Twice took second place in the competition in the category "Coffee of the Year" (2008, 2009). The place where grain is grown is located at a height of 1.4 - 1.7 meters. The good ecology of the local region makes Esmeralda coffee a healthy and environmentally friendly product.

In the struggle for high quality coffee, during the harvest, farmers manually select the ripenest grains. The collected grains are washed for several hours, sorted, and excess impurities are removed. After two-stage drying, optimal humidity (12%) and the temperature of coffee beans (up to 38 degrees) are achieved. These are very important indicators that affect the taste and quality of the drink. The caring attitude of manufacturers has made coffee from Panama a winner of the TOP 10 most expensive coffee beans in the world.

1st place - Kopi Luwak, $ 600

This coffee is considered the most expensive in the world. Its place of origin is Indonesia. The plantations where coffee is grown are located on the islands of Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra. Translated from the Indonesian Kopi Luwak is translated as "coffee", the second word of the name is due to a small animal, in appearance it resembles a squirrel. It is Luwak (another name - civet) that helps the most expensive coffee in the world to be born: eating grains of a coffee tree, they leave the animal's body not digested.

How is the most expensive coffee made?

After collecting coffee berries on the plantations, farmers feed civet with grains. When the grains leave the animal’s gastrointestinal tract, the coffee is cleaned, dried and roasted. Then coffee beans are sorted, unsuitable are selected. The remainder produces Indonesian coffee, which is famous for its pleasant aroma. Thanks to the enzymes found in civet, the taste of coffee becomes very soft. The average cost of this coffee is from 200 to 600 dollars per 400 grams.

Not everyone can try Kopi Luwak. Its production is limited - annually the Indonesians can produce only 453.6 kg of this coffee. In European and American coffee houses, one cup of drink costs from $ 35.

It happened in the distant colonial times in Indonesia. Then the Dutch, who occupied the territory of the now Indonesian islands, forbade local farmers to drink coffee from the "Dutch plantations." And the Indonesians, by the way, love coffee. We lived in a Balinese family in Ubud, where every morning the wife of the owner of the house prepared breakfast for us. So, I was always brewed fresh natural coffee in the mornings (not Luwak, of course, but ordinary :)), not because I asked, but because it was so accepted. That is, people in those parts very much respect natural coffee, and so it was in the old days. When the Dutch forbade the locals to collect coffee on their territory, the farmers had to look for individual grains of coffee on the ground, where they managed to find them. These were the feces of Luwak, local martens. Over time, people realized that such coffee is much tastier than ordinary.

Since then, Indonesia, and in particular the island of Bali, to this day has been one of the main regions supplying this type of coffee. The suitable climate and the spread of palm martens created excellent conditions for the appearance of Luwak coffee in these parts. Indeed, when I was traveling around the island of Bali on a motorcycle on my own, I noticed the signs with the inscription “Kopi Luwak” here and there. A particularly large concentration of such farms in the north-east of the island, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Kintamani, as well as along the road, which leads to the temple of Pura Besakih (Pura Besakih).

So we went to the volcano Batur and on the way we noticed the inscription "Kopi Luwak". I already heard about this coffee, and therefore it was incredibly interesting to see everything myself. I stopped at the entrance to find out how much the visit costs. It turned out you do not need to pay anything! The whole walk and excursion is free, only a cup of coffee for tasting costs 50,000 rupees, i.e. about 5 dollars. Well, quite a reasonable price in my opinion. In Russia, in any coffee shop, an ordinary espresso will not be cheaper. Therefore, I parked the bike in the shade and went deep into the green thickets.

The whole farm is cozy green corridors with a variety of plants.
  Here you can see how various agricultural crops grow - from cocoa to vanillin. Everything is marked with tablets, so it will be definitely interesting to botanists who are interested in how this or that type of plant grows. And for an ordinary person, far from botany, it is interesting to see a bed with pineapples, for example :)

I note that my three-year-old child was the first to notice pineapples \u003d) So, even without reading, you will fully recognize the familiar fruits. But to the majority, nevertheless, the tablets are to help; much looks like ordinary grass))
  For me, nettle turned out to be more noticeable \u003d)


  Here it is slightly different, but the shape of the leaves and small needles on them give out a stinging plant familiar to us from childhood.

And, of course, coffee is growing here. As without him. Here are such pretty almost bunches :)

To show visitors here, various varieties of coffee are grown. But for the production of Luwak coffee, only Arabica is used. The fastidious animal does not recognize other varieties.

Here is that very selective gourmet marten.

Honestly, this beast conquered me. Muzzle is incredibly cute, and I wanted to lovingly lure him for the fur \u003d))

Several furry animals sat in a cage. They planted them here again only to show visitors. Of course, there can be no talk of any great production of speech. A pair of martens will not be able to cope with the volumes for sale, no matter how much they ate and did not poop after.

I asked if it was a common thing that musangs sit in cages like this. To which the employee confidently replied that no, no, only free musangs produce coffee. Like, they walk around in the jungle, eating wild coffee, and then people collect their feces. I doubt it very much, because it’s not human resources to collect these inconspicuous poop (sorry, but you can’t erase the words from the song) among the thickets. Moreover, I assumed that there would be some kind of coffee plantation, but it turned out that there were such forests around.


  Where will the animals look for arabica?

Previously, coffee was really produced in a “wild” way, but now, more often than not, unfortunate martens are put into cages and fed on the spot. And if in nature these mammals choose only selected arabica berries, then in the cells they have to eat what they give. Therefore, today this method of producing Luwak coffee, although it reduces its cost, but at the same time the quality is falling. It is a predictable pattern in my opinion. It seems to me that it would be more logical to plant coffee fields, fence the whole territory and let these martens rush there. It seems like they live in freedom and they eat the best coffee of their choice. It is again easier to collect waste behind them, after all, the territory is limited. Why this has not been done remains a mystery to me, but apparently there are reasons ...

We were allowed to feed the musanga. A farm employee hooked ripe coffee berries on a stick so that the beast would not bite his hands. And Mishutka and I fed the Luwak several fruits \u003d)


  See how it bends for the coffee berry \u003d)

As soon as I saw, my eyes lit up immediately :)

Well, with what pleasure he hobbled arabica !! Even I want to look at this photo :)))


  The berry really looked ripe and juicy, maybe that's why there was such a stir, or maybe the belly was just hungry :(

It’s not enough to pass the beast, only a few berries, but he still wanted sweets \u003d)


  Pay attention to the bottom of the red peel from the berry. Luwak spat out the outer shell of coffee and ate only a grain!

And I have a question: "How do they eat these grains, then?" After all, they are not processed in his stomach. It turns out, in fact, only in a slightly modified form.

Yes, like that. Grain came in - grain came out :) And this coffee gets its unique aroma due to enzymes that are in the gastrointestinal tract of the palm marten, and with which, naturally, coffee grains are impregnated, getting inside the Arabica eater. Later I found out that the martens also do not refuse fruits, and moreover, they are not vegetarians even once, like that!

Found feces are thoroughly washed, cleaned, and then fried.

I’m sure you wouldn’t have distinguished from ordinary coffee in appearance if you had poured it into a jar. Not at all like poop;)

After the fried grains are ground. The old way is in a mortar.


  Mishutka, of course, here is more trying to hold the log, rather than grind :)))

But he manages to cope with the next step - sifting.


  Today, of course, this whole process is automated.

And now, in fact, the treasured jar of coffee at the cost of several hundred dollars.

And here a burning question arises: "How to brew Luwak coffee"? Many people ask about this, because all the aroma and taste apparently does not appear with standard cooking methods. In Bali, I specifically filmed this process, because undoubtedly he deserves attention. For the brewing of Luwak coffee, the Balinese use such a device.

Water is poured into the flask, coffee is placed on top, and a fire is ignited below.

Then this unit is closed with a glass cube. The water boils over the fire and the steam escapes through a special tube into a bottle of ground coffee.

Here, this water accumulates and the Luwak coffee is brewed in this way. Whole alchemy, no less!

  It seems to me that no coffee machines can replace such a technology, and the only, albeit remotely, but similar method is brewing according to the principle of Turkish coffee directly on the fire.

Hurrah! Done !! Well, dare to swallow? ;)

I have repeatedly met reports of other travelers from similar farms, but none of them fed Luwak, no one saw how coffee was brewed in the traditional way, and no one could distinguish Luwak coffee from ordinary. Indeed, it tastes almost the same as the average Arabica. But the saturation and aroma of this coffee exceeds the usual at times! How do I understand that? We were lucky that on this farm we were shown so much and given a try, because we accidentally got here and how successful !! Because it was here that we were not just poured a cup of coffee for 5 bucks, they arranged a whole tasting table for us.

In addition to a cup of coffee, Luwak brought us a cup of regular coffee for comparison. Everything is known by comparison, as you know. And that's exactly how you can fully feel the difference between regular coffee and Luwak coffee. The taste of Luwak, as I already wrote, is richer and more aromatic, but at the same time this coffee is not stronger, i.e. not due to strength, saturation is manifested.

I honestly confess I was expecting something else. The fact is that my mother brought Luwak coffee from Vietnam. With a photograph of a beast on a pack, everything is as it should :) Many say that he is a Vietnamese Luwak with a kind of chocolate flavor, that’s supposed to be really exclusive. Indeed, the coffee brought by mom has a chocolate tint. Just a reservation, she would never have paid even hundreds of dollars for this rather big bag of coffee. Then it’s not clear what kind of coffee it is, it’s written something like “Luwak”, but how can elite coffee cost a penny for which it is sold in Vietnam? The answer probably lies in the now-known fact that methods have been developed for the artificial aromatization of coffee with cibetin. It is the artificial flavor that is felt in the Vietnamese "chocolate" Luwak !! Then the price of this coffee is explained there.
  In Bali, there are absolutely no additional taste shades, except for coffee, it is not felt, only a special deep saturation. That is why I was surprised, because before I kind of tried this kind of coffee, but the taste was completely different. So from my own experience, I am inclined to believe that Vietnamese coffee is a fake. Not all, probably, because Vietnam is also a supplier of the Luwak variety, but cheap options with artificial flavors have flooded the local market, and it’s nothing special for tourists, nothing personal, just business) Remember that Luwak coffee is produced all over the world only 700 kg a year ! It a priori can not be cheap! Do not fall for attractive prices, this is an indicator of deception and low quality.

I will continue about the tasting. The photo above shows that in front of Mishutka there are many cups of drinks. That is, in addition to ordinary coffee and Luwak coffee, we also tried coffee with ginseng, coffee with chocolate, coffee with coconut, coffee with vanilla, tea with ginger, tea with lemon, tea with lemongrass and hibiscus tea. Mmmmm, how delicious it was! Mishutka and I blew everything \u003d) Except for tea with ginger, for well, very tartly and even islandy. All herbs are grown here, and therefore offer to try everything.

And a variety of coffee options are already stored in jars.

After a walk and tasting, we went out. On the way, we were not aggressively offered to see coffee in their store, but I immediately said that there was no money \u003d) The employee did not offer more, i.e. there was no goal to push something, I also really liked this farm. I definitely recommend this place for exploring the production of the Kopi Luwak mine.

The farm is called Lakshmi. Along the Ubud-Kintamani direct road (if traveling via Tegallalng), along the street Jl. Raya Tegal Suci, there is such a shield.


  It is worth focusing on it. The goddess Lakshmi is painted there, and almost at the entrance to the farm Ganesha sits (a Hindu god with an elephant head).

Up! At the request, coming in PM, still decided to mark this farm on a map.