I am going to preface this one with a general note. I did not actually intend to get these beans. It was my fault for not reading the label properly. I do not recommend or condone the current Kopi Luwak coffee trade and would say to steer clear of the trade in general.

Kopi Luwak, also called cat poop coffee. Coffee cherries are eaten by civets, partially digested, and pooped out. This process allows enzymes to mellow out the harsher flavors and acidity of the coffee beans and create a reportedly great cup of coffee.

When this type of coffee was first discovered, this may have been true. Now, the story is different. Instead of letting civets naturally eat the coffee cherries at their own pace and intermingled with a proper diet, companies are capitalizing on the hype and capture civets for mass production. These civets are fed a steady diet of various coffee cherries at various states of ripeness, destroying the civets diet in the process. Quite a few factors here mean that the flavor Kopi Luwak is known for doesn’t exist in the modern world. And, doesn’t need to exist in the modern world now that we’ve gotten so much better at coaxing out the finer flavors of coffee in general.

For more information on this topic, I suggest looking up the Cut the Crap campaign, or the various BBC or National Geographic articles on the subject:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160429-kopi-luwak-captive-civet-coffee-Indonesia/
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-24034029

For the coffee itself, it was at least interesting to see what the hype is about and get a feel for if the result is desirable or not.

The Beans:

Smell – Very nutty. Reminds me of peanuts with a little bit of hazelnut in there. Not much else there. Pleasant enough though.

Taste – The beans have a very berry-like taste but it quickly becomes a more dry, flavorless texture. Interesting. Normally beans don’t lose their flavor as quickly as this one did. It may be do to how the enzymes affected the make up of the beans in general.

Brewing:

Very little CO2 off gassing even though they are freshly roasted. There is a thin, generic coffee smell when performing the pour over but very little specifics.

Drinking:

The main part, the big one. The whole reason the world requests this “rare” coffee in such large quantities. The first flavors are very light, almost metallic at first but not quite. No real specifics jump out at me. There is little to no acidity in this cup. Mellow. Almost tea-like in some aspects. Reminds me of a much less sophisticated a Port of Mokha coffee I had from Blue Bottle a while back. It has minor hints of sweet lemon and berries but very much on the edge of the flavor profile. It is really easy to drink but not super interesting or

It gets more generic if you let it cool down too much. The hints of flavors are washed away by the oddly acidity-lacking base coffee flavor.

All in all, this is much better than grocery store, most Starbucks, etc. But, it is a disappointment when compared to specialty coffees and even the Starbucks Clover specialty coffees. For the price, this is not worth it and there are many better, more nuanced coffees out there. If you are looking for a tea-like coffee, The Port of Mokha/Yemen coffee is the better luxury coffee choice in my opinion.

The Kopi Luwak comes in at 4320 yen for 100 grams, roughly 40 USD. It is priced high and the taste is just not worth it. Even if the coffee was produced humanely, still not worth it.

4/10