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
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