Study reveals ingredients of beans passed through civets’ digestive system that makes hot drink beloved by Hollywood
It is a coffee beloved by Hollywood and influencers – now researchers say they have found an ingredient that might help explain the unique flavour of kopi luwak.
Also known as civet coffee, kopi luwak is produced from coffee beans that have passed through the digestive system of the Asian common palm civet. The resulting product is not only rare, but very expensive – costing about £130 for 500g.
It is also controversial, with animal welfare experts raising concerns that some producers keep civets in battery-style conditions.
Now researchers say they have uncovered new clues as to the coffee’s unusual taste, revealing unroasted beans retrieved from civet poo have differences in their fat content to those from ripe coffee berries manually collected from trees.
