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 "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