A coffee that often demands outrageously high prices. Ironically, you can say similar things about a coffee that many specialty connoisseurs revere above all else. Good, great, or horrible, it’s a story you tell friends.

That’s because kopi luwak is more than a coffee, it’s an event. But because of wildly outlandish prices and movies like “The Bucket List,” kopi luwak carries mystique and novelty that many people find attractive.

Not cup quality, not growing conditions, not traditional processing or varietal. That’s because the coffee is rewarded with high prices based on civet processing and little else. By most accounts, it tastes like the thing from which it came - remember, that thing is poop. In the coffee industry, it’s common knowledge that kopi luwak is little more than marketing hype. Once excreted, the indigestible seeds or coffee beans are picked from the feces in all their ooey-gooey glory. First, a small, cat-like animal called the civet eats coffee cherries, which ferment while passing through the civet’s digestive system. Rather, its fame resides in a very specialized form of processing. The allure of this notoriously expensive coffee has nothing to do with the climate or elevation in which it’s grown. Being a well-intentioned coffee enthusiast, he generously brought us a bag of kopi luwak, a.k.a. It’s not everyday that a bag of sh*t falls into your lap.Ī wholesale client of ours recently returned from a trip to Bali. The Temple team particularly wanted to stage a battle against two “monsters of marketing:” The kopi luwak and two Geishas of its own: What follows is Cuchna’s explanation of how one accidentally stumbles into some kopi luwak coffee, as well as an admittedly biased account of the cupping, which pitted the kopi luwak side-by-side against some of the most interesting players in Temple’s current coffee lineup. “Involuntary acquired some civet?” WT heck is going on here? We reached out to Temple tweeter, trainer and educator Cole Cuchna to get some answers. Tell, Temple did, we involuntarily acquired some civet. “Controversial cupping” is not a phrase you hear every Controversial? Pray, tell. One of our more interesting, and definitely most controversial public cupping will take place today at 2pm.

On January 9, venerable Sacramento roaster/retailer Temple Coffee tweeted about a “controversial cupping.”

Lintong coffee wild kopi luwak