Kopi Luwak A Short Review

jaycey

jaycey

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I decided that along with my unethical badger hair brushes that were no doubt made from the hair of a caged farmed badgers and the soap, balms and cosmetics no doubt tested on a variety of unwilling animals I should try some unethical coffee.

Kopi Luwak, yeah this is the stuff famously eaten, digested and then excreted by a little cat like creature called the Civet.
Search online to why it is considered unethical.

I ordered a 125gm bag online (£35!!) done a espresso grind on it and ran it through a Aerpress here at work.
Of course there was much anticipation amongst the testers as to how this legendary coffee tasted.

The outcome....Shit!

Conclusion...Don't bother, nescafe original is more satisfying, honestly.
 
shit?
Where you surprised after all that is what it is!
Never tried it , maybe if I could try some of the real natural un farmed beans I would but never the farmed stuff
As you say cruel, but the animal welfare would be bad and who knows what diseases they may be carrying and shitting out
 
Being honest, it was just a "been there, got the t-shirt" experience.

There's enough reviews online slating the taste to make an educated guess of it's taste qualities.
 
The idea is that, in the wild, the civet picks out only the choicest coffee berries - ripest / plumpest - and it's these that taste "good".

By force feeding caged civets any old crappy berries it kind of misses the point entirely except the farmer is laughing all the way to the bank. If I could source "wild" Kopi Luwak at a reasonable price I'd give it a go but coffee passes through so many middle-men it would be near impossible to determine wild from farmed.
 
p.b said:
The idea is that, in the wild, the civet picks out only the choicest coffee berries - ripest / plumpest - and it's these that taste "good".

By force feeding caged civets any old crappy berries it kind of misses the point entirely except the farmer is laughing all the way to the bank. If I could source "wild" Kopi Luwak at a reasonable price I'd give it a go but coffee passes through so many middle-men it would be near impossible to determine wild from farmed.
Click to expand...

But you say one tastes good and one tastes bad - couldn't you tell from that?
 
I found it disappointing as well, along with Blue Mountain: both way over-rated imo. A really good Ethiopian Sidamo or Nicaraguan will cast a long shadow over them at a fraction of the price.
 
YorkNeil said:
I found it disappointing as well, along with Blue Mountain: both way over-rated imo. A really good Ethiopian Sidamo or Nicaraguan will cast a long shadow over them at a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...

I had ordered some Blue Mountain seconds before reading your post, Neil. My second attempt at this coffee though from a different supplier. The first one I did not like, this one - I'm drinking some now, ex-cafetiere - and it is indeed quite pleasant. For £15 for 100g I'd expect dancing girls and bells on - not "quiet pleasant". So back to the Islands and Caribbean Coast for me - ah! excluding Jamaican Blue Mountain.
 
Carl,

If you can source some try the Australian Skybury, I think Coffee Compass have it in stock, for me it's everything Jamaica Blue Mountain is supposed to be and isn't, for a lot less money. It's grown in the same sort of situation climate and location wise. I had some Kopi Luwak many years ago while passing through that part of the world on a stop over on my way to visit family in Australia so long before it's mass popularity and so was probably "the real thing" and it was just coffee as far as I can remember nothing at all exceptional about it other than it was a cup of novelty coffee.
 
My local roasters Roberts & Co often have it as well but it very rarely lasts long enough to get onto their website. The best Skybury I have ever had was bought from the growers onsite roastery, literally at the plantation gates it was amazing. I believe all the highest quality goes to the domestic market..

I had a look earlier on and Coffee Compass have stock of the Skybury currently. I can also whole heartedly recommend their latest blend Mahogany Jampit Hit which was created for a regular group buy/club of a bunch of we folks on coffee forums uk that prefer darker roasts, we get a kilo of coffee every month from a different roaster, the Java Jampit SO bean they have is also excellent and worth a try.
 
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