LONDON - It costs £420 ($1110) a kilogram and has a flavour that has proved impossible to imitate.
But now the origin of the taste that makes kopi luwak the world's most expensive coffee has finally been unearthed - and the answer lies in the gastric juices of an African tree-cat.
For
years the story had been told of how the prized beans' smooth taste and lack of bitter aftertaste were the result of having been digested - and then excreted - by civet cats in Sumatra.
Dr Massimo Marcone, of the University of Guelph in Ontario, has proved beyond doubt that the authentic beans have indeed passed through the digestive tract of the animals, and that it does make a difference to the taste.
The confirmation came one day when he was searching round scrubland in Ethiopia, another country where the cat-like civet is found, and discovered a pile of dung. In it was a coffee bean.
"For me it was an epiphany," he told New Scientist.
Marcone's tests showed that the beans have different properties after they are eaten - and this would alter the taste.
He examined the beans at a magnification of 10,000 times and found pits on the surface caused by the stomach acid of the civets.
Further tests showed that proteins inside the beans had also been affected.
Marcone says that is probably what gives the beans their special flavour.
- INDEPENDENT
