Bali: Civet Coffee

What story combines high-priced luxury goods, animal welfare, and — crowd favorite — poop? The story of civet coffee, coffee beans that have passed through the civet’s digestive tract! 

According to oral history, the first cups of civet coffee were brewed because Indonesian farmers were not allowed to consume the coffee beans their Dutch overlords made them plant. So they collected coffee beans scavenged from civet excrement to brew coffee without breaking the Dutch rules. 

Then in 1991 Bule Tony Wild began the stampede toward civet coffee by proclaiming it a smoother, more healthful, and rarer kind of coffee that every coffee aficionado should try. The civet gut ferments the coffee beans to make the brew taste earthy and complex. Oprah promoted it on camera in 2003. As prices for the luxury commodity climbed, more Balinese jumped into civet-coveting and more foreigners jumped on the Civet Coffee Best Coffee Ever bandwagon. The market value for civet coffee is expected to reach $10.9 Billion by 2030. 

Many years later, Mr. Wild has become a prominent spokesman against civet coffee. Demand has caused civets to be caught, caged, and force-fed coffee beans. The sad solitary civets look miserable and suffer from caffeine toxicity. Marketers claim their beans are foraged from wild civet poo, but only a small fraction of their beans are acquired this way. See: https://www.thecivetproject.com/stopcivetcoffee

I wonder if it’s an Emperor’s New Clothes phenomenon. If it’s rare and a luxury, it must be tastier. Our Aunt Shirley drank Yuban or Folger’s perked coffee every day and scoffed at the fuss over fresh roasted and ground beans.  But certainly Indonesians would bristle at animal rights activists suggesting they free their civets and go back to picking beans from coffee bushes. As long as there is demand for the luxury commodity, civets will be trapped and kept for their coffee bean excrement. So Oprah, how about making it right?  Use your platform to denounce caging civets for coffee.