Kopi Luak is pronounced “Kopi Luwak”, and is also known as Civet coffee. The coffee is made from coffee berries having been eaten and digested by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus Hermaphroditus). The civet eat the berries but the beans inside pass through undigested. The process takes place on three of the Indonesian Archipelgo Islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi.
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee, and luwak is the local word for the Asian Palm Civet. The Luak eats the raw red berries as part of it normal diet, which also includes insects, small mammals, eggs and other fruits too. The inner bean of the berry is all that passes through the digestive system of the Luak and it is said that the enzymes in the stomach add to the flavour of the coffee by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. Once the coffee beans are collected, they are washed and given a light roast, so as not to destroy the complex flavours that have developed.

Kopi Luak is the most expensive coffee in the world. It can sell in the US from anywhere between $120 to $600 a pound. It is mainly sold in Japan and in the US but it is becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited to only 1,000 pounds (450kg) at the most make it into the world market. One small café in Australia has Kopi Luwak on the menu and is selling it at $50 per cup; they sell approximately 4 cups per week. In April of 2008 a brasserie of Peter Jones department store in London started selling a blend of Kopi and Blue Mountain called Caffe Raro for £50 a cup.

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