The biggest problem: the civets are held in catastrophic conditions. Cages as big as shoe boxes. Just for shitty coffee. I hate humans.
(german source: www.peta.de/themen/kopi-luwak/)
No thanks. I'm good.
Submitted 2 months ago by Jezebelley@fedia.io to [deleted]
https://fedia.io/media/65/8c/658cb2e368347a5cd694f6373f3aa8c1621d067ac0aad9fd22392c3a4d0cf300.jpg
Comments
PixeIOrange@lemmy.world 2 months ago
SSJMarx@lemm.ee 2 months ago
[food] comes from [animal]!
learn more
[animal] is subjected to the most horrific conditions imaginable to produce [food].
yeah, that’s usually how it goes.
AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They didn’t used to be, but once there was a demand and market for shit coffee then they capitalised.
can@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I remember reading an article by the guy the that brought attention to it saying how much he regretted it.
Dave@lemmy.nz 2 months ago
I had the opportunity to try this when I was in Indonesia. The place I was at was a cafe advertising the most expensive coffee in the world, I think it was approximately USD$30 for a cup at the time (almost 10 years ago).
I remember seeing the example cages with civets inside them and a description of how it’s made (plus a conversation with a friend I was travelling with), and decided not to try it.
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Do you remember where in Indonesia that was? I visited one near Bandung not realising what this coffee actually was. Bit like you I left without trying or buying. The place was a visitor centre and we weren’t allowed to look at the actual farm.
qooqie@lemmy.world 2 months ago
And because it’s expensive people have abused these poor animals just so they can sell the coffee.
Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl 2 months ago
I got a tour of the place where they proudly show these cats in the most horrible conditions. Also, it doesn’t even taste good.
KrankyKong@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You tried it!?
mostNONheinous@lemmy.world 2 months ago
My boss bought some a few years back. I tried it, honestly a not a bad cup of coffee if you ask me. But I would never pay for it myself.
olafurp@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I would if given the chance. Just not gonna pay extra for it.
Fleppensteijn@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Yes, it tastes a bit earthy to me.
ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Incredible how humans always find ways of abusing more animals.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I assumed you were full of shit about this being abusive but then I looked it up and oops
ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
The moment an animal is involved in the process of making money they are bred, caged and treated only as “good” as needed so they stay alive.
Emerald@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Why would you ever assume an animal agriculture practice wouldn’t be abusive?
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 2 months ago
You can still get kopi luwak that’s solely from wild civets–rather than captive–but the price is astronomical. I think that the last time I looked it up–more than a decade ago–it was something like $150+/pound.
Battle_Masker@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“This coffee tastes like shit!”
“It is shit, Austin.”
“Oh good, then it’s not just me.”
bcgm3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
lol, wanted to make sure this was here.
Thanks.
lemming741@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I remember reading that wild animals just eat the best cherries, it has nothing to do with the digestion. The caged animals are just making shit beans.
skvlp@lemm.ee 2 months ago
A big part of this story is that the civets are very picky and only eat the best coffee cherries. There might of course also be other factors, but the pickiness is key.
MacStache@programming.dev 2 months ago
I have tasted it. Not the shit, mind you, but the coffee brewed from the beans. It was coffee. Nothing special. Not even a bit nutty.
skye@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not the shit
I would hope it’s not
baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
there is a lot of kopi luwak fraud, so it’s possible you drank any old coffee and paid out the ass for it. an idea why kopi luwak presumably tastes so good is also that these civets have a very varied diet that enriches the coffee a lot, but caged civets are fed exclusively coffee beans and therefore the coffee won’t even taste very good, so even if you did have real kopi luwak it’d probably taste underwhelming.
MacStache@programming.dev 2 months ago
I have no doubt about the fact that it was legit stuff. The beans were bought from a reputable vendor and brewed at a reputable cafeteria. It was different for sure, but nothing that would swoon you.
The whole thing is based on the speciality of the way the beans are produced. They sell an image of excellence and rarity, but in the end it’s just coffee.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
it would have cost you nothing to not share this with us
BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I think it’s important to know that humans treat these animals like absolute shit to literally drink their shit that doesn’t even taste good, but it’s expensive
mrmule@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Wild civit cats would usually cherry pick the best, well, cherries (beans) . Thereby ensuring a quality product. Nowadays they are captive and fed any old beans which means the quality is usually quite poor. I mean it still tastes OK, a bit sour, but I certainly don’t support this cruel practice.
mkuznetsoff@lemmy.world 2 months ago
FINNALLY
LITERALLY SHITPOST
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
And the civets are extremely abused to get it. Do not buy or drink this coffee. I know this first hand.
kandoh@reddthat.com 2 months ago
If you’re thrifty like myself you can eat the beans yourself for a homemade version
Maerman@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
So I have a story related to this. I teach English in Korea. One time, two 11-year-old students chose kopi luwak as a topic for their in-class (no research) project. I asked what that is, as I had never heard of it. They explained in pre-intermediate English that there is a cat that poops coffee beans. I didn’t believe them at first, because it sounded so silly. But they urged me to look it up. At first, I got confused between ‘kopi’ and ‘coffee’, because Korean has no ‘f’ sound and substitutes a ‘p’ sound. But when I finally found the Wiki page, I was blown away. The fact that this is real would be so funny if it weren’t for all the abuse another user pointed out.
Captain_Baka@feddit.org 2 months ago
Literally a shitpost.
Empricorn@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Rich people have more money than sense. We should make them pay their taxes to help with this…
SSJMarx@lemm.ee 2 months ago
you couldn’t, uh, and this might make me sound like a plebian, I know, but couldn’t you, like, ferment the beans yourself?
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
the animal abuse really adds that special je-ne-sais-quoi
primrosepathspeedrun@lemmy.world 2 months ago
im not sure its abuse? I know at first they were just collecting cat poop in the wild.
it being abuse wouldn’t shock me, but it seems like the only thing necessary to make this is just, like, the civets eating stuff they normally eat, then collecting their poop.
Daxtron2@startrek.website 2 months ago
But then they can’t sell it for a ridiculous price
JoeKis@lemmy.world 2 months ago
benderbeerman@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Me: spits coffee into the barrista’s face “yo, this coffee tastes like dirt!”
Barrista: “well it was fresh ground this morning.”
Slovene@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Get out! Dad jokes is that way --> !dadjokes@lemmy.world
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I remember an episode of QI where someone brought up the fact that Stephen Fry once bought (then) Prince Charles some Kopi Luwak as a present. His response was, “I thought I would get him something he didn’t already have.”
Bosht@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This was addressed in the movie 'The Bucket List’s and I always wondered if there was any truth to it. Now I know. I also know, unconfirmed, that the animals are not treated well for their piece in the process. Take it with a grain of salt. I’m not rich or hardcore enough to even worry about this level of coffee, but interesting information none-the-less.
Cheesus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s really cheap if you buy it local. When I was on vacation in Laos, there were signs on the side of the road for 0.5kg of the stuff for $5 usd equivalent. I didn’t try it because I’ve heard of the animal rights issues.
ilhamagh@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m from one of the country in question and I’m certain animal welfare is far at the bottom of the list of our priorities.
Even our famous endangered species like Orangutans fight losing battles against palm fruit oil producers ravaging their natural forest habitat.
So yeah, that’s what happens when the majority of the population still needs to compete for food with the animals.
Greed and corruption are widespread everywhere it’s exhausting.
Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
I was told by a producer and seller, that they would keep the animal hostage for only a few months and would let them free afterwards.
What I heard, was “we force feed them coffee for a few months, let them free in a somewhat controlled environment and setup traps to catch them again and abuse them again for a few months”
I am not sure if I believe them about letting them free at all.
glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 months ago
How do I block individual posts, because I’d like to stop seeing this one.
MashedTech@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No shit coffee on your feed my friend? I’m sorry, but this is a DEMOCRACYYYYYYY!!!
solsangraal@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
who was the first person who ever said “hey, that cat shit out coffee beans–i think i’ll roast’em up and make coffee with it”
flicker@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I bet it was more like, “Here’s coffee you can only give from shit. I bet a stupid rich person would pay a fortune for it.”
OneCardboardBox@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
A story I heard was that it was the poor indigenous farmers who were forced to cultivate coffee for the Dutch. They weren’t allowed any of the beans they grew, but were able to collect it from the dung of civets that prowled around near the plantation. Of course, once the colonizers learned that it tasted “good”, it was commoditized too.
Might be apocryphal.
GaMEChld@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Additionally, iirc a lot of these are unethically farmed too, like force feeding them in captivity and collecting the droppings.
techMayhem@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If you are a living organism with the capacity to tell misery or pain just hope that humans don’t find out you can make a product that nothing else an can. If you do end up I’m that situation, you will be turned into a biological machine that receives the minimum amount of necessities met as to not impact production.
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I was in Bandung in Indonesia earlier this year. We visited one of these places not realising what it was. The visitor centre had a bunch of cages which weren’t small but I wouldn’t say large enough for the size of the animal. We asked if we can see the actual farm. He said it was the largest farm so we asked to see it. Nope, not allowed.
They’re also on a strict diet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ones not on display are force fed.
Benchamoneh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Who on earth discovered this and why?
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Someone with the worst caffeine headache ever, desperate for something to make it go away.
“Fine! I’ll drink the raccoon shit coffee!”
PelerMeletus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So Kopi Luwak comes from Indonesia. At that time, Indonesia was under the dutch. At that time there was a famine caused by the dutch cause they were doing some unpaid labor and all the crops that they force the locals to plant is cash crops, so not edible. That caused a massive famine, so of course some starving guy decided why not try eating the poop of the animal.
robocall@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s a big shit for a small animal
4lan@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Probably from years of being force-fed
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There’s not much nutrition on a coffee fruit, so civets have to consume a whole bunch. This results in excessively large poops.
- source: my 8yo nephew, who knows far too much about poop.
CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The thing is, it tastes good. It’s very smooth, the beans are cleaned & roasted in an oven for 20-28 mins. Ground. Then probably, likely mixed with boiling water unless you’re doing cold brew.
It’s very sanitary & idk as others say maybe it’s because the animals eat the best cherries & it’s got nothing to do with the digestion. In any case: it is tasty.
primrosepathspeedrun@lemmy.world 2 months ago
eating cat poop: 👎 drinking cat poop: 👍
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I guess you can eat the coffee beans too
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
i would wager that any coffee given the special care that this stuff is given will taste really quite good, and certainly good enough that there’s no reason to perform animal abuse to get this specific kind.
Shady_Shiroe@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What I want to know is, what was someone smoking when they decided they should try making coffee out of literal sh#t. I want the details on how it was discovered.
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
You should look up bug poo tea. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This sounds like the way COVID got started.
IkarusHagen2@feddit.org 2 months ago
Sometimes coffee is shit
Zacryon@feddit.org 2 months ago
I wonder how it must have been like to be the one who thought one day, “I’ll pick coffee beans out of monkey shit and drink that shit!”
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
From the wikipedia page: Within the coffee industry, kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or novelty item. The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) states that there is a “general consensus within the industry…it just tastes bad”. A coffee professional compared the same beans with and without the kopi luwak process using a rigorous coffee cupping evaluation. He concluded: "it was apparent that luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality…Using the SCAA cupping scale, the luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees. It would appear that the luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee.” Professional coffee tasters were able to distinguish kopi luwak from other coffee samples, but remarked that it tasted “thin”. Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste. A food writer reviewed kopi luwak available to American consumers and concluded "It tasted just like…Folgers. Stale. Lifeless.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 months ago
You don’t need to do a scientific evaluation to determine it is worse. It’s literally shit water. You are drinking shit.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Sometimes bizarre methods like that do come out tasting great. So good idea to test
PolyLlamaRous@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve had it a number of times both in the states and in SE Asia. It’s different but it is really good. Like yeah it is a different coffee and if you judge it to the same criteria as a coffee style that it isn’t, of course it will fail. If a “good coffee” needs to be aggressively acidic with strong notes of papaya, pineapple, Maracuja…this is not that. It is very smooth and subtle and that is what makes it nice and different.
StereoTrespasser@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Don’t forget blueberry. You have to be able to taste a hint of blueberry. Did you taste blueberry? Because if not, your extraction process has gone horribly wrong, you’ve bought the wrong beans, you’re using the wrong water,and you probably bloomed for 32 seconds instead of 29.6.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Another part of the equation is that civets were very particular about the cherry beans they ate, so only the best beans at just the right time were eaten and shit out.
Well after it started becoming known as good tasting, people started capturing and feeding the civets crappy cherry beans that weren’t at the proper ripeness instead of gathering the shit from out in the wild where the civets got to be particular.
So now, if you buy it, it’s “shit tier” civet shit beans.
Eheran@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Indeed, if acidic etc. is what they like they can fuck right off. Of course it is better without!
rollerbang@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The last sentence would literally describe Palo Alto coffee that isn’t shat out of an animal.
baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 2 months ago
I think modern coffee is judged by how much the tastes reflect its distinct characteristics, which includes physical characteristic of the farm (altitude etc), fermentation process, and roasting process.
It takes a lot of work to produce good coffee, and the end result should let these efforts shine. Acidity, fragrance, and funk are great ways to communicate the life of the coffee to the taster. That is why they are typically the standard to determine good coffee, instead of generic and monotone"smoothness" that is shared across kirkland signature, peets, starbucks, and gas station coffees.
TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
What comes out of that animal on the photo doesn’t look to different from what went in. So my guess is, you’ll just get ordinary beans mixed with some civet intestine lining and stomach acid and whatever else they ate during that time.
Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
I read that what happened is that the workers on the coffee farms weren’t allowed to get coffee for themselves, so they started using these coffee cherries, but then, of course, someone had to take that away from them too so it could be monetized.
Agrivar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
…and then, in the natural course of things, snobby douchebags convince themselves that the crappy product they’ve taken from the plebs is better than the original. Poopbean coffee is just the lobster of the 21st century.