Charity Discovers Abused Indonesian Civets Whose Feces Yields World’s Most Expensive Coffee

Kopi Luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. It is collected from the feces of a luwak or the common palm civet, which is a small, cat-like animal.

Recent findings have shown, however, that the civets were being kept in captivity, force-fed coffee beans and abused, The Daily Mail reported.

Researchers for animal charity ‘Lady Freethinker’ discovered 20 of civets being kept behind a private home on the island of Bali and found them being kept in wire cages, stacked close together, in full sunlight, without any access to food or water.

Civets are typically nocturnal and solitary forest beings. The members of the charity found the animals depicting signs of stress and compulsive behavior.

Experts deemed their demeanour to be a result of being constantly caffeinated due to their diet of coffee beans and being kept in the sunlight.

Genuine Indonesian Kopi Luwak is collected from the droppings of the luwak that freely prowls coffee plantations at night in the harvest season, eating the choicest ripe coffee cherries. As it can’t digest the coffee beans, they excrete them out. These beans are then collected by farm workers, who clean, wash and dry these before selling.

This coffee is in demand due to its unique taste that it acquires from its passage through the luwak's digestive tract and the anal scent glands the civets use to mark their territory.

But nowadays, authentic Kopi Luwak is hard to find as civets are being confined and force fed coffee beans, the report added.