Three Hundred Dollars for Coffee

Although it sounds ridiculous, there really are coffee beans this pricey. Kopi Luwak, produced in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries is a gourmet coffee made all too often through animal exploitation.

Kopi Luwak is produced by partially digested and excreted coffee berries of the Asian palm civet, a cat-like mammal that spends its entire life caged, unable to move and fed mostly coffee berries. At one time, this animal freely roamed and consumed the berries as it chose. Upon discovering the unique flavor formed by the digestive process of Asian palm and other civet species, a multi-million dollar industry was born.

The Asian palm civet is a nocturnal animal that is important for its ability to help spread and start the germination of seeds throughout the ecosystem. Despite proponents of the coffee claiming their sources only use humane production of Kopi Luwak, it is often impossible to verify these claims. To learn more about this story and the plight of the Asian palm civet, please visit: thecivetproject.com