Most Expensive Coffee in the World

We made a stop at what looks like an empty car park surrounded by forest. It was still raining.

We made a short walk along a well-paved path in the forest, with umbrella in one hand and the mind not knowing what to expect next.

We reached a spot and incredibly there we found a few nicely built huts, shops and lots of tourists. This is the coffee brewing and tasting house. We found this to be quite innovative of the people here in making what seems to be just a spot in the middle of a coffee plantation to be a very attractive tourist destination.

Here we were seated in a simple hut on the edge of the hill and given a number of cups of coffee and tea to taste.

Obviously the special one, the Luwak coffee is not free and had to pay 30000 rupiah per cup. It is quite a special coffee. Luwak coffee is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between US $100 and $600 per pound in the international market.

Although it tastes quite similar to the local coffee, the coffee beans come out from the digestive tract of a squirrel-like animal called locally as Luwak. This animal selects and feeds on the best coffee beans and the leftovers which are collected to make the Luak coffee are the undigested beans.

This is what is written in Wiki...

"Kopi luwak or civet coffee, is coffee made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world."