Good marketing can sell anything at a good price. Yes, even if it's animal excreta. Believe it or not, people are being sold coffee made out of animal excreta and that too as the most expensive coffee in the world.
We are talking about cat poop coffee or kopi luwak? The uniqueness of this coffee is the coffee beans have been through digestion and excretion, even before you sipped it.
It is produced from the coffee beans digested by Asian palm civets found in the tropical jungles of Asia. The coffee beans excreted by the cats are sold for a fortune.
This method of making coffee dates back to the 19th century when it was illegal in Indonesia to sell coffee to the locals, as it was meant to be exported to Europe.
The locals, therefore, started collecting the excreta of the palm civet as partially digested coffee beans were found in them. After cleaning, roasting and brewing the coffee from the beans, they found that it tasted better than the regular ones.
This method is back, and now a single pound of kopi luwak is sold for $100-500. Furthermore, there are also rumours that it's healthier than the regular varieties of java.
When the Health Site asked the co-founder and brewmaster at Foxtrot Beverages, Sahil Jatana, whether there are any health benefits of kopi luwak, he said: "It is known to have certain benefits over regular coffee."
He also said kopi luwak may be less acidic than regular coffee, but added that there are no studies to substantiate that claim.
"Apart from that, the antioxidant-rich kopi luwak also improves your metabolism, prevents neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's due and also control diabetes," he said.
