Kopi Luwak is the worlds most expensive coffee, averaging at about $200 per pound. Why you might ask? Because civets, cat like creatures, eats coffee berries and poop them out. The freshly expelled beans from the center of the berry are then collected and become the famous Kopi Luwak coffee bean.
Because of its high price tag, there are bound to be imitators. How is one to prove or disprove that their coffee was previously digested by a civet? We now have the answer to that question! Imposters beware!!!
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry’s summer issue explores the unique fingerprint that civets leave on coffee beans. Researchers at Osaka University in Japan analyzed 21 different types of coffee beans and found distinct fingerprints of citric and malic acid on Kopi Luwak beans that distinguished them from other beans. They were even able to tell if a roast had been mixed with 50% Kopi Luwak.