Coffee Luwak are robusta or arabica coffee beans which have been consumed by and passed over the digestive pathway of the Indonesian civet cat or known as Luwak cat by the locals (family of Viverridae) which are famous on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali. Coffee Luwak is considered one of the finest and expensive coffees available. The civet cat consumes the raw red coffee ‘cherries’ as portion of its common diet as the cat eats a mixed insects, small mammals and fruits along with the softer outer part of the coffee cherry. However the cat does not digest the inner beans, instead passing them out. Locals then gather the beans which are still fairly intact after passing through the cat’s digestive system, and sell them on to dealers. Some said that enzymes in the stomach of the civet cat add to the coffee’s flavour through fermentation of some sort.

Personally I am never a coffee lover hence the I couldn’t really taste the different between the normal coffee and Luwak coffee as they all tasted bitter to me anyway. In the end I didn’t buy any coffee from the shop, just bought some dark chocolate and teas as souvenirs. I couldn’t recall the name of the shop that we ‘d been but it was located at a jungle somewhere. I’m sure if you ask your tour guides there would be plenty of these shop selling Luwak coffee around Bali.