Coffee production in Indonesia in the classic Indonesian cup profile. Larger processing mills, estates and some farmers' cooperatives on Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Bali produce "fully washed" coffee. The most unusual form of coffee processing in Indonesia is "Kopi Luwak". This coffee is processed by the Asian palm civet ("Paradoxurus hermaphroditus"). The animals eat ripe coffee cherries and their digestive process removes the outer layers of the fruit. The remaining coffee beans are collected and washed. Coffee experts believe that the unique flavour of Kopi Luwak comes, at least in part, from the extraction of naturally occurring potassium salts from the beans during the
Kopi Luwak has two farms with 200 (in Davao City) and 100 (Iligan City) wild civets. But the archipelago of Indonesia where the famous "kopi luwak" was first discovered and produced is leading in supplying the world market for almost three centuries, where many small-scale civet farms are proliferating in the countryside. Several studies have examined the process in which the animal's stomach acids and enzymes digest the beans' covering and ferment the beans. Research by food scientist Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed that the civet's endogenous digestive secretions seep into the beans. These secretions carry