Kopi Luwak Kopi Luwak Kopi luwak (), or civet coffee, is coffee that includes partially digested coffee cherries, eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet ("Paradoxurus hermaphroditus"). Fermentation occurs as the cherries pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected. Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two mechanisms, selection – civets choosing to eat only certain cherries – and digestion – biological or chemical mechanisms in the animal's digestive tract altering the composition of the coffee cherries. The traditional method of collecting feces from wild civets
Kopi Luwak "Washington Post" reviewed kopi luwak available to US consumers and concluded "It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless. Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn't finish it." Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste. Massimo Marcone, who performed extensive chemical tests on the beans, was unable to conclude if anything about their properties made them superior for purposes of making coffee. He employed several professional coffee tasters (called "cuppers") in a blind taste test. While the cuppers were able to distinguish the kopi luwak as distinct from the