Kopi Luwak profile. Vietnamese companies sell an imitation kopi luwak, made using an enzyme soak which they claim replicates the civet's digestive process. Imitation has several motivations. The high price of kopi luwak drives the search for a way to produce kopi luwak in large quantities. Kopi luwak production involves a great deal of labour, whether farmed or wild-gathered. The small production quantity and the labor involved in production contribute to the coffee's high cost. Imitation may be a response to the decrease in the civet population. Initially, civet coffee beans were picked from wild civet excrement found around coffee plantations. This
Small-toothed palm civet Small-toothed palm civet The small-toothed palm civet ("Arctogalidia trivirgata"), also known as the three-striped palm civet, is a palm civet. It lives in dense forests of southeast Asia, from the Assam district of India to Indochina and the Malay Peninsula and on Sumatra, Bangka, Java, Borneo, and numerous small nearby islands of Indonesia. A monotypic genus, "Arctogalidia" means ‘bear-weasel’ (from ancient Greek "arkto-" ‘bear’ + "galidia" ‘little weasel’). The specific epithet "trivirgata" means ‘three-striped’ in Latin. The small-toothed palm civet is mid-sized by the standards of its family, weighing 2.4 kg (5.3 lbs) and measuring 53 cm (21 in) long