Bali is one of the main regions in which luwak coffee is greatly produced. Though different in taste –since flavor and aroma are mostly influenced by where the coffee bean grows– yet the quality is the same as luwak coffee from any other region in Indonesia. Of course, this applies for the authentic wild Kopi Luwak, not the low-grade products that came from caged civets (luwak) or even the fake ones that are not luwak coffee at all.
So many plantations in the Island of Gods are dedicated to the cultivation of luwak coffee Bali. As part of the local government agrotourism program, tourists can even visit the luwak coffee farms and taste the famous coffee. These farms will take you on a short tour through their coffee production process, how they look after their civets, and let you sample a genuine Kopi Luwak.
However, because there are too many luwak coffee stalls in Bali selling luwak coffee at high prices, people began to wonder if they were buying and tasting the authentic Kopi Luwak. Especially as some don’t taste much different from a regular coffee. Coffee experts began investigating this trend to find some answers. The thing is, it is impossible to have that much of Kopi Luwak spread all over Bali. This coffee is believed to be one of the rarest coffee beans due to its complex production process. But now it appears to be widely available. For those who often travel to Ubud for example, they would know that along the road to Ubud, there is a bunch of coffee shops serving luwak coffee on their menu. Even gift shops also have a plentiful supply of Kopi Luwak. Where did those rare coffee beans come from?
Here is the science. The civet poop is not much, and it only weighs about 20% of the civet’s body weight. Moreover, only 5-6 coffee beans can be found in each civet’s dropping. Even the amount of feces from a real wild civet is very small. It is estimated that only 0.5% of the amount circulating in Indonesia today and are usually found in nature, such as coffee plantations. For basically a civet can’t produce a lot of feces at once.
So, to conclude the investigations, it seems clear that the most likely answer at this time is that the luwak coffee Bali being sold at the coffee stalls there is no luwak coffee at all. It is not even luwak coffee from a caged civet, but it is just some ordinary coffee beans that were never processed through a civet’s digestive system. A coffee expert once witnessed a naughty luwak coffee producer in Bali where they peeled the coffee skin, then dried the coffee cherries which still had mucilage on them, and when the mucus was almost dry, they squeezed the coffee beans until it was in the form of civet feces. They want to imitate the luwak coffee Bali for good money, but without doing the necessary hard work. It is sad to say that this is now a corrupt industry, even though it was supposed to be an honest and legitimate business for the people of Bali.
Today, the coffee industry leaders have agreed that to prevent tourists and coffee lovers from getting the fake luwak coffee Bali, the authentic wild Kopi Luwak that came from wild civets will be labelled as “Certified Wild Kopi Luwak”. So, if you want to buy the real cat poop coffee, you should look for a certified supplier, such as Coffee Arks. For we sell only the original and genuine wild Kopi Luwak, with the hope of promoting this amazing specialty coffee worldwide.
