If you're one of the millions of people in the world who rely on coffee to get them going in the morning, you may want to try some Kopi Luwak coffee. This coffee, the most expensive in the world, sells for more than $600 per pound and $50 per cup, despite its gruesome origins.

After hearing this, you might have a couple of questions. First of all, why is it so expensive? Because not very much of it is produced each year. In fact, in a typical year, only about 500 pounds of Kopi Luwak are produced. Second, where exactly does it come from? The coffee is processed by an animal that lives in tropical forests known as a luwak or palm civet. What this means is that the animal eats the coffee beans and expels them in normal fashion. Afterward, the beans are gathered, sterilized, further processed by a human team of coffee makers, and sold for hundreds of dollars.

The luwak, which is a cousin of the mongoose and can excrete an odor like a skunk's, is a small, mostly nocturnal animal. The luwak likes to eat coffee beans, and the coffee makers make sure it has plenty of beans to eat.

Many people feel that coffee that goes through this process would be absolutely disgusting, but fans of Kopi Luwak disagree. Studies have shown that because the luwak has already processed the beans, the makeup of the beans is changed and the coffee produced from them is less bitter.

"When coffee, like other fruit, is harvested, not all the fruit will be perfectly ripe. Since the majority is ripe and it is to be combined for use, the end product comes out well; however, if you have an animal...naturally selecting only the ripest fruit, you will end up with a product of unparalleled quality," says an article on the website lifeaftercoffee.com.

Some skeptics worry about the safety of consuming something that has already been consumed by someone or something else. However, studies have shown that because the beans have already traveled through the luwak's digestive track, they may actually be cleaner than other coffee beans. And remember, they are roasted in addition to being cleaned.

On the net:Animalcoffee
www.animalcoffee.com

Tastes of the World
www.tastesoftheworld.net

Kopi Luwak
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