Kopi Luwak
Kopi Luwak and Kape Alamid Coffee are the names of a special form of coffee , casually called "cat coffee ", which was originally made from half-digested coffee beans in the excrement of spotted musangs living in the wild . Today, due to the increased demand, production often takes place in cage batteries. Variants can be found in East Timor ( Indonesian kopi laku ) and in Vietnam ( Vietnamese Cà phê phân chồn , English fox-dung coffee / weasel coffee , Wieselkaffee).
General
The brand name Kopi Luwak comes from Indonesia from the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi. In the Philippines, harvested in the mountains of southern Mindanao, it is sold under the name Kape Alamid or Philippine Civet Coffee; a mixture of Arabica , Liberica and Excelsa beans . It is used exclusively to refer to the coffee cherries that are eaten and excreted by a certain crawling cat species. Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee. Musang luwak (local Musang pandan ) is the Indonesian name for the wild spotted musang involved ( Paradoxurus hermaphroditus , with the subspecies P. hermaphroditus philippinensis in southern Mindanao), from the genus of the musangs . In Vietnam the sneak cat is called cầy hương also chồn hương . It is essential for its creation.
Real Kopi Luwak is not easy to come by in Indonesia and Mindanao either. The real beans can only be recognized by a specialist under a microscope or with the aroma profile of a gas chromatographic analysis . The quality of this coffee is not constant, but depends on the type of coffee bean eaten, the time it has been on the forest floor and the rainfall. The drying also has a significant influence on the quality.
Even Alfred Brehm has 1,883 Kopi Luwak described. The excrement coffee was collected by locals in order to make a drink from it, as the plantation coffee, which was very valuable and laboriously grown at the time, was intended exclusively for colonialists and their export.
Emergence
The tree dweller, the size of a house cat, is mainly nocturnal . In addition to the fruits of the coffee plant, it feeds on other fruits, occasionally on small mammals and reptiles, eggs, newly hatched chicks and insects. However, he can only digest the pulp of the coffee fruits, the beans are excreted again. The excreta is collected from the locals. It helps the knowledgeable that the sneak cats always go to the same place in their "litter box". The beans are washed and lightly roasted. In the intestines of this animal, the coffee cherries are subjected to wet fermentation by enzymes , which changes the taste properties: a dark and full, but also somewhat “musty” aroma is created ; the British actor John Cleese describes the taste as "earthy, musty, mild, syrup equal, rich and with undertones of jungle and chocolate ".
A study by Canadian food chemist Massimo Marcone of the University of Guelph in the province of Ontario showed tiny "craters" on the surface of the Kopi Luwak beans that are missing from conventional coffee beans. He suspects there are traces in it that come from the digestive secretions of the stealthy cats. In addition, the proteins stored in the coffee beans were partly completely broken down by digestive enzymes , partly split into smaller molecules, which then help determine the aroma and taste when the beans are roasted. This fermentation of the green coffee beans is already known from wet processing ( washing ) with lactic acid bacteria . In contrast to dry coffees, wet coffees show less acidity and after roasting more aldehydes (2- / 3-methyl butanal , acetaldehyde ) in the aroma.
Marcone therefore compares Kopi Luwak with varieties such as Jamaican Blue Mountain or Peaberry from Tanzania. However, coffee beans digested by the Ethiopian civet also have characteristics similar to those of Kopi Luwak, and Marcone found the taste very similar.
Artificially produced Kopi Luwak
In 1996, on behalf of the Vietnamese company Trung Nguyen, German scientists were able to isolate six enzymes in the intestinal tract of the stealthy cats. A patented synthetic solution with these enzymes was developed to mimic the natural effect. Other types of coffee that are supposed to offer the taste of Kopi Luwak are not made using enzyme solutions, but from a mixture of high quality beans with additional flavors.
economy
One kilogram of unroasted beans costs directly from the producers, e.g. B. a cooperative of the Blaa'n tribe at the Matutum volcano (South Mindanao, Philippines) for less than 50 euros . In the provincial capital Medan (North Sumatra), one kilogram of unroasted Kopi Luwak is available from around 40 euros, roasted for around 75 euros. In Europe, green coffee is available from wholesalers for around 100 euros and roasted beans from 220 euros / kilogram in retail (as of 2012).
livestock farming
The high price tempts the locals to catch the crawling cats, which are essential for the production of the "cat coffee", and to feed them with coffee cherries. According to information from animal welfare organizations, tens of thousands of animals are now being kept extremely cramped in cage batteries, where they are fed almost exclusively and inappropriately with coffee cherries. Video material from the animal rights organization PETA shows the "cruel conditions" of mass farming. According to PETA, many animals suffer “from deficiency symptoms such as hair loss and clearly visible behavioral disorders. Some of these farms […] advertise the excreted coffee beans […] as wild collection. ”Proponents of mass farming argue that the animals eat in a controlled manner and that the coffee obtained in this way can be produced in a more controlled manner. Furthermore, crawling cats would be protected from being followed by the coffee farmers, who do not like to see the crawling cats on the coffee plantations. In the meantime there are also some coffee farmers who have adopted an ecological and animal welfare-friendly production of Kopi Luwak in order to prevent malnutrition of the crawling cats. In the Philippines, cage systems are being created in which Motit Coffee or Kape-Alamid Coffee is produced. However, this tastes different than Kopi Luwak, as the coffee beans are of different origin and cannot be equated with Java coffee in terms of quality. This also has an effect on the taste of the stealthy cat coffee.
Movie and TV
In the drama The best comes at the end of 2007, the drink has a special meaning.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Brehm: Brehms Thierleben at Zeno.org .
- ↑ www.kopi-luwak.de
- ↑ a b c Michael Hagmann: luxury food: "Earthy, musty, mild". In: zeit.de. August 12, 2004, accessed December 9, 2014 .
- ↑ Massimo F. Marcone: Composition and properties of Indonesian palm civet coffee (Kopi Luwak) and Ethiopian civet coffee . In: Food Research International . tape 37 , no. 9 , 2004, ISSN 0963-9969 , p. 901-912 , doi : 10.1016 / j.foodres.2004.05.008 .
- ↑ Legendee: The Legend of the Weasel . In: Trung Nguyen . Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ↑ Source: Website of the “Kopi Sidikalang” roastery .
- ↑ World's most expensive coffee tainted by 'horrific' civet abuse. In: The Guardian. November 19, 2012, accessed March 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Kopi Luwak: The Suffering of Sneaky Cats for Coffee. In: PETA. December 2019, accessed March 3, 2020 .
- ^ Kopi Luwak. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .
- ^ Civet coffee from animal factories ( Memento from April 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Bucket List Coffee: The Story Behind Jack Nicholson's Favorite Drink. December 27, 2020, accessed July 13, 2020 .