Kopi Luwak
Kopi Luwak Coffee Alamid and are names for a special type of coffee, casually referred to as " cat coffee ", which was originally made from excrement of living in the wild Fleckenmusangs. Variants are found in East Timor ( Indonesian kopi laku ) and in Vietnam ( Vietnamese Ca Phe Chon Cut [Ca Phe Chon ], English fox -making coffee / weasel coffee, weasel coffee ').
Generally
The brand name Kopi Luwak comes from the islands of Indonesia Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. In the Philippines, harvested in the mountains of Südmindanao, it is sold under Coffee Alamid / Philippine Civet Coffee; a blend of Arabica, Liberica and Excelsa beans. There are thus only the green coffee beans called ( strictly speaking, the ripe coffee cherries ), which are eaten by a certain civet and excreted. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee. Musang Luwak (local Musang pandan ) is the Indonesian name for the participating wild Civet ( Paradoxurus hermaphroditus, with the subspecies P. hermaphroditus philippinensis in Südmindanao ), from the kind of Musangs arise. In Vietnam, the Schleich Cat Cay called Hương also Chon Hương. It is essential for its formation.
Real Kopi Luwak is not easy to obtain in Indonesia and Mindanao. The real beans can only detect a specialist under the microscope or with the flavor profile of a gas chromatographic analysis. The quality of this coffee is not constant, but depends on the type of coffee bean eaten from, and by the time she was lying on the forest floor and from the precipitate. Similarly, the drying affect the quality considerably. In the countries themselves, he is not so much as a specialty.
Even Alfred Brehm 1883 Kopi Luwak described. The excrement was collected and drank coffee, as the then very valuable and painstakingly grown coffee plantation was intended solely for colonialists and their export from the native population.
Formation
The house cats large arboreal is mainly nocturnal. In addition to the fruit of the coffee plant they feed on other fruits, occasionally by small mammals and reptiles, eggs, newly hatched chicks and insects. But from the coffee fruit he can digest only the pulp, the beans are excreted. The excreta is collected by the locals. This helps the Lore that the civets visit again and again in the same place their " litter box ". The beans are washed and lightly toasted. In the intestine of this animal, the coffee cherries are exposed to a wet fermentation by enzymes, which changes the flavor characteristics: it creates a dark and powerful, but also somewhat " musty " flavor; British actor John Cleese describes the taste as "earthy, musty, mild, syrup equal, rich and with undertones of jungle and chocolate ."
A study of Canadian food chemist Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph in Ontario showed tiny " craters " on the surface of the Kopi Luwak - beans, which are absent in conventional coffee beans. He suspects it traces that result from the digestive secretions of civets. In addition, the data stored in the coffee bean proteins were completely degraded by digestive enzymes partially digested partially into smaller molecules that then a say aroma and flavor during roasting of the beans. This fermentation of green coffee beans is from the wet treatment ( washing ) already known by lactic acid bacteria. In contrast to dry processed coffees show wet processed less acid and after roasting more aldehydes ( 2-/3-Methylbutanal, acetaldehyde ) in flavor.
Marcone compares Kopi Luwak, therefore, with varieties such as Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry or from Tanzania. However digested by the Ethiopian civet coffee beans have similar characteristics as Kopi Luwak, and Marcone also found the taste very similar.
Artificially produced Kopi Luwak
1996 were able to isolate six enzymes in the digestive tract of the civet on behalf of the Vietnamese company Trung Nguyen German scientists. It has a patented synthetic solution with these enzymes designed to replicate the natural effect. Other types of coffee that will offer the taste of Kopi Luwaks, are not produced with enzyme solutions, but by a mixture of high quality beans with added flavors.
Economy
One kilogram of unroasted beans costs directly from the producers, for example, a cooperative of the tribe of Blaa'n the volcano Matutum ( Südmindanao, Philippines ) to 50 euros; In the provincial capital Medan ( North Sumatra) is one kilograms unroasted Kopi Luwak from about 40 euros, roasted for about 75 Euro. In Europe, the green coffee for about 100, - € in the wholesale and the roasted beans from 220, - EUR / kg offered in retail (as of 2012).
Livestock
The high price led the locals to catch the for the production of " Cats coffee " indispensable civets and to feed on coffee cherries. According to animal welfare organizations, tens of thousands of animals are extremely cramped kept in cages doing now, where they are fed almost exclusively and not humanely with coffee cherries. Video material of animal rights organization PETA shows the " animal tormenting conditions " of mass entertainment. Many animals suffer, according to PETA " from deficiency symptoms such as hair loss and in conspicuous behavioral disorders. Some of these farms [ ... ] apply the excreted coffee beans [ ... ] as a wild collection. " Proponents of factory farming argue that the animals are controlled ingest food and the coffee thus obtained can be generated more controlled. Furthermore, civets would be protected by the coffee farmers who do not like to see the civets on the coffee plantations, before the persecution. Meanwhile, there are already some coffee farmers who have adopted an environmental and animal welfare production of Kopi Luwak to prevent malnutrition of civets. In the Philippines arise cage - farming systems, is made in which Motit Coffee or Kape Alamid - coffee. However, this tastes different than Kopi Luwak, as the coffee beans are of different origin and in its quality a Java coffee can not be equated. This also has an effect on the taste of civet coffee.