Kopi Luwak - probably the best coffee in the world

Since tasting my first cup of kopi luwak (musang) in the highlands of Kintamani Bali, I am hooked. I have become a coffee man since giving up smoking 5 years ago. I have tasted all the different type of coffee there is, but only one coffee has tasted so good above the rest. Move aside Starbuck or Gloria Jeans, Kopi Luwak is the best coffee in the world.

Kopi Luwak is one of those unusual blends. One of the strangest and most expensive coffee brands, Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee is made from ripe coffee berries that have been eaten by, and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian palm civet and other wild cats.

The civets eat the best coffee berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested.
The beans are then collected and cleaned. In Australia Kopi Lawak sells for A 50 dollars a cup, but in Kintamani Bali it about Rm 10 a cup. The beans are sold for Rp 600,000 (Rm200) per 100 gram (make 10 cups) and cost Rp 450,000 (Rm150) at the airport for a mere 20 grams (make 3 cups) !!

If Kopi Luwak is not your cup of tea (pun intended!) try Kopi Toraja, although the coffee plant is planted the traditional way in Toraja land, near the southern tip of Borneo.

How do you describe the taste of Kopi Luwak? It has a heavenly taste after a hard day's work. It is mellow not bitter, doesn't leave an after taste and there is a touch of caramel. In Vietnam they call it Weasel coffee.

You can argue it's halal-ness until the cows come home, but meanwhile I'll be enjoying it to the last drop until a fatwa is issued against it.