The small animal, Luwak, also known as musang or palm civet, belongs to the civet family. Rainforests are the main habitat of the musangs, but their habitat is quite diverse. The main area of distribution of Luwak is Africa, South and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia. The animal Luwak with a body weight of 1 to 15 kg looks like a marten or ferret; its body length varies from 30 cm to 1 meter. Luwak activity is predominantly at night. Often, animal Luwak is the goal of hunters who want to get not only valuable civet fur, but also edible meat.
Nutrition
The animal Luwak lives on trees and is a small predator, but the basis of its nutrition is not only meat, but also various insects, as well as fruits, nuts and other plant components, including grains of coffee trees. Musanga carefully selects the most ripe and undamaged coffee fruits due to its scent, which allows them to find aromatic and delicious coffee beans.
Elite coffee production
Animal Luwak eats coffee beans in such quantities that it can not digest them. When coffee beans enter the Luwak organism, they are fermented, which subsequently affects the taste of the beans. In the stomach of the animal, the process of digesting the pulp of coffee fruits takes place, and coffee bones are excreted naturally, acquiring a slightly changed look. They are collected, thoroughly cleaned and rinsed from litter of Luwak. After that, the coffee plantation workers dry the coffee beans in the sun - so they are slightly roasted. After such actions, the sale of coffee begins, on which the hatchback is often depicted - an animal that "produces" an elite product.
As the research results show, such coffee is safe for consumers, since after careful processing of the beans they have practically no pathogenic bacteria, and subsequent roasting of the beans kills the remaining ones.
The production of such coffee requires a lot of manual work, takes a lot of time and effort, so it turns out a little. The rarity and high cost of coffee is a consequence of the destruction of the natural habitat of the Luwak, which causes a decrease in their number.
For some time, palm civet was considered a dangerous pest that ate all ripe fruits, so they were exterminated by Indonesian farmers. However, as it turned out, it was in vain, because with the help of these small animals you can earn a lot of money in the production of elite coffee called "Mine Luwak", which has become the most expensive today.
A bit of history
When Indonesia was a colonial possession of the Netherlands, local farmers demanded more taxes in the form of coffee beans, which were very much appreciated by the local population. Then, Indonesian farmers noticed that coffee beans from the excrement of musanga are practically not digested, so they began to be thoroughly cleaned and delivered to the Netherlands. However, the coffee from these beans turned out to be so aromatic and tasty that it began to gain popularity outside Indonesia. So the original technology for the production of “Copy Luwak” coffee was born, which today is considered the rarest and most unusual. Many coffee lovers speak of it as a fragrant drink that has a caramel flavor with a chocolate touch. Whether or not to try such coffee is up to you!