Trung Nguyên its "Weasel" sub-brand. Due to the complicated production process, only 40–50 kg of "Weasel" coffee are produced annually. It is much more expensive than any of the company's other products: a 1 kg bag of "Weasel" coffee costs $3,000, six times higher than Indonesian kopi luwak. Dang has claimed, however, that Trung Nguyên's Vietnamese version is of higher quality, since production depends on wild or free range civets who choose the best coffee beans themselves, instead of being caged and force-fed. Currently, Trung Nguyen owns the system of four factories: Along with producing and processing coffee beans, Trung Nguyên operates
Kopi Luwak tastes bad". A coffee professional cited in the SCAA article was able to compare the same beans with and without the kopi luwak process using a rigorous coffee cupping evaluation. He concluded: "it was apparent that Luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality...Using the SCAA cupping scale, the Luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees. It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee.” Tim Carman, food writer for the