Kopi Luwak aromatic civet coffee spread from locals to Dutch plantation owners and soon became their favourite, yet because of its rarity and unusual process, the civet coffee was expensive even during the colonial era. "Kopi" is the Indonesian word for coffee. "Luwak" is a local name of the Asian palm civet in Sumatra. Palm civets are primarily frugivorous, feeding on berries and pulpy fruits such as figs and palms. Civets also eat small vertebrates, insects, ripe fruits and seeds. Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two mechanisms, selection and digestion. Selection occurs as the
Civet (perfumery) noninfectious. The name derives from the Arabic "zabād" or "sinnawr al-zabād", civet cat ("Viverra civetta"), by way of Old Italian "zibetto" and Middle French "civette". The 10th century Arab historian al-Masudi mentioned civet ("zabāda") as a spice in his book "Murūdj al-dhahab" (Meadows of Gold). Civet was among the many trade items that caravans, controlled by the Ghana empires, carried from the Niger valley to North Africa. Civet (perfumery) Civet ("Zibeth"; "Zibet"; "Zibetum"), also known as civet musk, is the glandular secretion produced by both sexes of Viverridae species. A number of viverrid species secrete civet oil in their perineal