Kopi Luwak/Civet Poop Coffee: Disgusting or Delightful?

Kopi Luwak/Civet coffee is a pretty divisive topic, but I wanted to share my understanding of it all and to answer the question of whether or not you should try it.
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[julianbueno]

James discusses the industry issues, animal cruelty involved, fraud possibilities, declines to drink it AND does not recommends blockchain in the same video? I love this man more and more with every video

[tirtakeniten]

I'm from Bali, Indonesia. I live where there is a lot of Luwak Coffee "factory".

Luwak mainly eat small animals and insects. Originally luwak eat coffee cherries as side dish. So they picked perfectly ripe coffee cherries.

In the "factory", luwak bred like pigs. Their main diet are, yes, only coffee cherries. Mostly they ended up getting malnutrition and die at young age.

[davidaden]

Hey James, I am from Indonesia and thank you for spreading the awareness! Supporting local coffee farmers are waaay more beneficiary for them instead of supporting this cruel 'industry'...

[WisnuWicaksono]

I'm Indonesian and I always say the same thing that James told you in this video about Kopi Luwak. Please don't drink it. Stop animal cruelty by reducing the demand.
You really did your homework James, great video

[justingrafstein]

Normally, one of my favorite traits of James in his videos is that he never uses absolutes, like "definitely do this" or "do not do this". He'd usually say something along the lines of, "this is a very low cost, low effort way to greatly improve your results (implying: do this)" or "if you have the money to shell out for this and you really want this feature or that difference, go ahead. Otherwise, I don't feel that it is worth the extra money or effort (implying don't do this)".

But in this video, I'm glad that James said straight-up do not buy civet coffee. Normally, if he thought a weird product or bean didn't taste any better than normal coffee, at most he'd say he wouldn't recommend it. But him requesting that we do not buy it shows how seriously he takes the abuse and fraud that goes on in that corner of the industry and that the various stances he takes on products are not just virtue signaling, he legitimately cares about the cause and about his viewers.

[ponchymonchy]

I made someone a kopi coffee once. He raved about it. I then told him it was actually 6 month out of date cheap super market coffee. He never forgave me for showing him up lol

[AnirudhaJamadagni]

I’m currently in Indonesia and I visited one of sites that sells this. I was quite excited to drink this but I saw the caged luwaks and I was not too thrilled afterwards. Thanks for this video this reassures me that I did the right thing.

[RoseDragoness]

Hey James, I am from Indonesia and thank you for spreading the awareness. Coffee experts in Indonesia also touted the same thing, trying to encourage the public to call captive civets coffee as not coffee luwak. You are right, you can't tell if the one you taste is real or not, the only way is to go here and go to the coffee plantation itself and witness actual wild harvest. There also instant coffee that use brand coffee luwak here, adding more confusion. Although maybe devaluing coffee luwak is how we can win this fight, I don't know really. What I know is, while I am not Indonesian coffee expert, due to our diversity of land, climate, and culture, Indonesia have more than 20 kind of coffee with different taste. I wish I can send you some xD.

[bigmclargehuge]

I really like you EVEN more after this video. This content was not what I expected going in, and I'm so glad to see you condemning such horrible practices. Also, OF COURSE someone from my home state wanted to make human coffee. Never change, Oregon.

[RC]

My local specialty coffee shop has the tagline: "We don't sell shit coffee" every time someone inquires whether they might offer Kopi Luwak. This rather vindicates that standpoint. Thanks for this video!

[cokentutes]

Worked at an exotic vet for years and this lady had a couple civets along with weasels she had rescued from unlicensed "pet" owners. The weasels we had to wear kevlar gloves to handle but the civets were super chill. You could scruff them like a cat and do whatever medicating/examination. Real sad to see that quality get taken advantage of.

[ryansmurda]

Thanks for bringing awareness to this. I almost bought this years ago out of sheer curiosity, but I decided at the time it wasn't worth the money and it just sounded disgusting. I had no idea about the animal cruelty behind this. Im glad you're shedding some light on this.

[petegalvs]

I love how this was such a departure from James' usual even handedness. He even started it that way, but then it went full revulsion and bile. Glad to know he's able to have a strong opinion on things and share that

[pichael]

Was wondering if James was ever going to cover Kopi Luwak. Honestly this industry needs more attention, sickening how Civets are treated for quick short term profits. People with more money than sense being sold a scam.

[alastorswife]

It breaks my heart that someone could put these poor creatures through this kind of abuse, and I can only imagine how malnourished they must be, not to mention the trauma of everything else they go through :( thank you for talking about this and spreading awareness, I know a lot of people have no idea how bad it actually is. I know I didn't until very recently.

[davidbeckett]

In a sub-10 minute video, James details the history, attraction, and ethical problems of the civet coffee industry, all without drinking any civet coffee or possessing any beans. Kudos!

[johandondokambey]

I'm Indonesian, and let me add this to the pool of facts: of course there have been found that there was 4x kopi luwak sold than produced, all the brand names who sold them often cited in a very fine print that there is actually very small amount of the actual luwak coffee, often only as high as 5%.

Another thing is, all who sell kopi luwak are those who mainly focus to the general market, the lay people who seldom know about traceability, even less about third wave coffees. It's like how Sbux are selling their frappes and telling customers that they're coffee, but instead recommending extra espresso shots.
No respectable third wave coffee roaster in Indonesia as far as I know even sell kopi luwak.

[funkmaster]

Super, eye-opening video!
I tried Civet coffee in Vietnam on holiday from what looked liked a a decent establishment that had a bunch about its history, showed samples of the *raw product* etc. but you're right, there's no way of knowing what they roasted and ground for my coffee was that, nor what conditions the civet cats were exhibited to.

[ChuckD]

An interesting twist, putting poop BEFORE the coffee 🤔

Excited to hear you on Cooking Issues, James!

[Douglaskyle]

When I talk about specialty coffee among friends and family they always ask whether I would drink that coffee from “monkey” poop. I always said no, never thinking of the conditions required to be able to manufacture this type of coffee for mass consumption. This was a video I think we needed for those poor civets.