World's Most Expensive Coffee
By Mike Crimmins
There's one coffee that costs up to $600 per pound and only a thousand pounds of it are made a year. It's called Kopi Luwak.
Kopi Luwak is one of the rarest and strangest coffees in the world. It's more expensive than most bottles of wine or champagne, but for some people it's just a little too weird.
It's most commonly from the Sumatra island in Indonesia. The area is known for their high quality coffee, but also on this island you can find a cat like animal called the civet. People say it looks like a cat or a weasel, but it's not part of either family.
The locals call them Luwaks and their favorite food is the coffee cherry. The eat the cherries whole, including the bean. In their stomach, it goes through a chemical treatment and ferments. It exits the digestive system as still intact beans. It's then gathered from the forest floor, cleaned and roasted.
In the way it's made and with the taste, it's unlike any other coffee. It's described as having a rich, heavy taste with a caramel and chocolate flavor.
Many people believe that it's just an urban myth, but it's very real and drank all over the world now. It was even featured in The Bucket List, a movie featuring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
Similar versions of this unique kind of coffee come from Java and Sulawesi in Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor and Vietnam.n case you were curious, there's public record of it causing any illness or sickness. The beans are washed, dried in the sun and roasted at high temperature, which most likely kills any bacteria or harmful contaminants.
