Who would want to pay $1000/kg or perhaps $50/cup for coffee beans (kopi luwak) that have been through the digestive tract of a cat-like mongoose aka Luwak?

This product was featured in a top-rating TV show this week, as an example of products which fall foul of Customs (due mainly to fecal matter included in a paperweight of coffee bean 'product', mounted in a display, straight from the animal's digestive tract).

Having being granted a free taste of kopi luwak a few months ago, although I don't like the price, I'd happily drink it again. Lovely brew.

My husband and I saw a documetary on this a while back - and we'd certainly be up for drinking this.


My Spanish grandfather used to pick and sell fruit for the market - I grew up eating the most delicious fruit every summer. We'd often get a big bowl of peaches - carefully washed with a tiny portion scooped out with a kitchen knife. They were invariably sensational.

As my yayo use to say: "los pajaritos no son tontos" (little birds aren't stupid) - meaning that birds selected the very best and most perfectly ripe fruit to eat (their beak marks would be sliced away - cutting out any salmonella risk - these peaches were never sold). I'm sure the Luwak is just as good a selective gourmet as the pajaritos are.

Yep, I'd definitely drink this coffee.

Unfortunately the coffee is Robusta rather than Arabica beans, so despite the claims of a lower bacterial level in these beans than normal beans, I'd not buy it.

If I was lucky enough to be there, then I'd definitely try it.
Seeing the ornamental beans/feces in a resin display put me off a little but if the coffee in the package is 99.5% beans then I'll not worry!

I heard they were made off a carcass of some animal creature and sell for $30 USD per cup at a 5* HK Hotel.

Sounds like it's at least worth a taste. Next time I find some, I'll give it a whirl.

Weasel Coffee in Vietnam.

"For the truly adventurous, there is the infamous ca phe chon, weasel coffee, which is exactly what it sounds like. Growers take the best beans from each crop, and feed them to a weasel. The weasel does what comes naturally, the beans are collected at his other end, then ground and brewed as usual. Apparently, the weasel's digestive system does something mysterious to the beans which makes them smoother and tastier than any other kind of coffee."

I found the Trung Nguyen branded weasel coffee in the States at Ranch 99
Market. It is not always available at the Ranch 99 stores. I googled and found them here., they called them Legendee at about $16.95 a pound. My wife is addicted to weasel coffee, so I'm glad to find them online now.

To be honest, I'd rather spend the $30 for a nice dinner than a single drink.

Have seen this sold in a few places - and not just ex-Luwak.

Can't say I really want to try it, but I have heard good things about the coffee and it's taste.

In India, it's monkeys--they apparently chew the coffee cherries and throw the seed (bean) on the ground. Some monkeys may swallow the cherries whole, in which case the beans might get the simian digestive tract nuance as well.

Strangely, it's not marketed as such.

How much would a mongoose set me back?

I've got no problem with trying this as long as it won't cause me any health problems, but what I want to know is what possessed someone make coffee with semi-digested coffee beans?

I understand that a lot of odd (to many) foods have become delicacies over time due to necessity (i.e., lack of other food options), but this just seems so odd to me.

Just make sure the animals doing the work are free range rather than in batteries of cages.

The latter wouldn't qualify as the real stuff.

Go figure- I'd had coffee before that I'd proclaimed "tasted like isht"- but I suspect this is a whole 'nother "animal" altogether.