Common palm civets digest coffee cherries that are then used to produce the world’s most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak, selling for over $100 a pound.
Common palm civets are best known for aiding in the production of an expensive coffee, Kopi luwak, by passing coffee cherries through their digestive tract. As the cherries go through palm civets digestive tracts, they get a unique “gamy” flavor and people extract these pits from the civet feces.
This coffee is in high demand because of civets tendencies to only pick the ripest coffee cherries. Kopi luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for over one hundred dollars a pound.
There has been a recent great increase in numbers of Asian palm civets kept captive for the production of civet coffee, especially in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, in the Philippines.
Sources: (Duckworth, et al., 2011; Nelson, 2013; Nijman, et al., 2014; Nowak, 1999; Shepherd, 2012)
Image: maddalena monge
