India Jumps On Bandwagon to Produce the Most Expensive Coffee in the World

This expensive coffee is native to Indonesia, where it is known as kopi luwak. It is produced on several islands of the Indonesia archipelago as well as in Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. Now India has also joined the league of producing this exotic and unique coffee, albeit on a comparatively smaller scale.

The Coorg Consolidated Commodities (CCC), an Indian start-up based in the Coorg (Kodagu) district of the south-western Indian state of Karnataka, has started its production under the brand name ‘Animane’. And how about that exorbitant price tag? The expense can be attributed to its unique and cost-heavy sourcing and processing method as well as superior taste, which is coveted worldwide. Producers in Indonesia and other regions across Asia forcefully feed the coffee beans to the caged Asian palm civet, which is often kept in appalling conditions. In India, however, the faeces are sourced naturally from the coffee plantations in Coorg, instead of caging the civet cat.

The process works like this: the civets devour the flesh of the coffee bean berries, leaving the coffee bean intact. The digestive enzymes in the stomach of the civet cat remove the bitterness of the beans and impart a smooth and sublime flavour and aroma to the coffee beans in its faeces, which makes this beverage distinctive.

Narendra Hebbar, one of the Coorg Consolidated Commodities (CCC) founders said, “The company has decided to open a café to serve the brew locally”, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Research has shown that civet coffee is nutritious and may help ward off several diseases, including neurological disorders, breast cancer and diabetes, and maintains healthy skin to boot.