Vietnam produces the most expensive coffee in the world. While in Dalat we visited one of the coffee plantations and got a taste of the ridiculously expensive coffee.

The world’s most expensive coffee is called Kopi Luwak. It is made much in the same way as regular coffee, with one big extra step in between: When the coffee berries (yes, berries) are gathered they are fed to Asian palm civets. These animals are unable to digest the beans and therefore they return to nature naturally after some time. This poop is then sifted through to find the coffee beans again and make coffee out of them. This might seem nasty, but the end product is the most expensive (and, according to some, the best) coffee in the world. How expensive is it? We paid 2,64 USD for a tiny cup, but this price is extremely low because we bought it straight from the plantation. The “street value” in high-end coffee shops can be as high as $80. For a cup of coffee!

So, what does it tast like? Well, I don’t really like coffee and am probably not the best person in the world to make a statement. It tasted bad, but not as bad as regular coffee. That’s good, right? Tora thought it tasted good, but not $80 good.

Another side of this coffee is the treatment of animals. The “correct” way of producing the coffee is for the animal to find the coffee berries on its own in the wild. This way the animals are not disturbed and they only eat the beans that are the best, therefore increasing the quality of the coffee. Unfortunately it is way more efficient to cage animals and feed them the beans. The plantation we visited had caged animals, but they looked healthy and moved around eagerly. Still the cages were not very big and we are not sure if the treatment of the animals was as good as it should be. There are brands that are “Certified Kopi Luwak coffee. Real & cage free”. These guarantee that the coffee is made using wild animals and in a sustainable and cruelty free way, more information on this can be found here.

Update: Unfortunately such a brand can be easily faked, something National Geographic have written about. Although trying this coffee was an interesting experience we don’t recommend others to do the same and we certainly won’t drink it again, the risk of supporting a business based on animal cruelty is simply too big.