Indonesian Coffee: the Luwak

COFFEE! 

April 2014

.... I was pretty pumped to stop at a coffee plantation while in Indonesia as I'd heard rave reviews. Similar to South America, it seems that a lot of the "good" coffee beyond instant powder was either exported or reserved for tourist spots. We did a tasting of coffee and chocolate at a small place between Ubud and Lake Batur.

Indonesia's claim to fame is the "Luwak cofee" (kopi Luwak)- coffee made from beans extracted from the poo of the Asian palm civet (pictured below) after it's eaten coffee berries. Market value of genuine Luwak coffee is extremely high, and there have been several ethical debates regarding the treatment of these animals. We only saw one Luwak and I have to admit it looked pretty sad laying there in its tiny cage. (The owner assured us that he has free roam of the place outside of business hours).

I tried all sorts of coffee infused with different flavors- my favorite being coconut coffee, and ginger coffee. The Luwak coffee was sort of grainy but I have to admit that it otherwise didn't really seem like anything out of the ordinary. Indonesians are pretty proud of it and claim that it can cure many health ailments (see sign below).

On our way back to Ubud we stopped to check out the rice terraces at Tegalalang - one of the most famous pictured spots in all of Indonesia. I snapped a few shaky photos (pretty sure I'd had about 9 cups of coffee by then, plus I was a little out of it having been up all night for the sunrise volcano hike). Another amazing day in Indonesia!

 

Tegalalang rice terraces