And as promised by Eli, we stopped at a Penangkaran Luwak. That translate roughly to a "Civet Farm".
Eli at the entrance of Penangkaran Luwak Cikole
The civet is a small mongoose-like creature and is reared here to produce kopi luwak.
Here are some benefits of drinking Kopi Luwak
A staff holding a civet
The civet purportedly eats the ripest coffee beans. Give the civet 1 kg of Arabica coffee berries, and the creature selects to eat only a quarter of those. These picky eaters eat only the best quality fruits!
The civet eats the berries for their pulps but is unable to digest the beans. But before it defecates, fermentation occurs in its digestive tract, as enzymes percolate into the beans. This process breaks down the proteins in the beans creating a unique and exotic flavor.
Coffee beans amidst dried civet fecal deposits
The coffee beans are then washed and dried, husked, roasted and ground.
Drying the beans ....
The best beans are round
10 15g sachets sell for IDR290,000
Out of curiosity for its taste, I treated myself to a cuppa ...
Kopi Luwak, IDR35,000 a cup
I found the brew here to be thick and strong, robust, bitter but with a distinctive hint of sweet aftertaste. But then, I am not a coffee connoisseur and I could not really appreciate its flavour and taste. I drank it like I drank any other coffee. What an anti-climax, right?
We had some snacks with our coffee, complements of the farm ....
Tapioca balls
What a surprise. There was palm sugar inside. We loved this snack!
Deepfried banana rolls
Sof and sweet banana wrapped in a crispy skin. What a play of texture ...
Lumpia or Deep-fried spring roll
Very savoury and textural. Loved it!!
Finished my cuppa ...
made our purchases, said goodbye to the staff ... and left. That was my first experience with Kopi Luwak.
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