Mmm, coffee

I have a fixation with Kopi Luwak coffee (Wild Civet). Quite a few fakes out there. Very expensive bean and so there are marketers out there who say you're getting authentic Civet ingested beans but in reality you are getting either no Civet ingested beans or a low ratio mixture with other Sumatran grown beans or even worse, raggety non-Sumatran or Javan grown beans.

There is a lab here in the Los Angeles area that will test your beans for a small fee to authenticate the origin of the beans.

SLC (Sumatera Lintong Coffee) are roasters that belong to what is called the Humbang Cooperative - Coffee farmers dedicated to "forage only" wild beans and do not roast beans that were used with farmed Civet animals and harvested as one would harvest eggs from a chicken farm.

Some people think the idea of Wild Civet coffee is gross, but trust me, it's a very full bodied extremely tasteful coffee.

I've had Kapi Luwak coffee years ago - my brother bought me half a pound and I agree with you that it is a rich, full bodied excellent coffee that any true coffee lover should at least try. As with any product that commands a premium price you are going to have the problem of fakes. Take Kona coffee for instance, the total annual crop is in the neighbourhood of 2 million pounds, however, total annual worldwide sales is close to 20 million pounds. Do the math. Most of it is fake. With respect to the Kapi Luwak, there is a great column written by humorist Dave Barry on the subject where he comments on the issue of fake Kapi Luwak - he says imagine being upset that your coffee has NOT been pooped out by a weasel If I can find the column I'll try to post it. Its pretty funny.

What technique do you use to brew this coffee?
Thanks,
Marko

Take Kona coffee for instance, the total annual crop is in the neighbourhood of 2 million pounds, however, total annual worldwide sales is close to 20 million pounds.  Do the math.  Most of it is fake.  

I think Kona coffee is often sold as a blend, not so often as 100% Kona, so there may be some error in the way it is counted. But agreed that counterfeit is a big problem.

I may have to check out the Civet coffee, although the concept is not very appealing. How much does the Kapi Luwak cost, and where is a reputable place to purchase it?

I've had Kapi Luwak coffee years ago - my brother bought me half a pound and I agree with you that it is a rich, full bodied excellent coffee that any true coffee lover should at least try.  As with any product that commands a premium price you are going to have the problem of fakes.  Take Kona coffee for instance, the total annual crop is in the neighbourhood of 2 million pounds, however, total annual worldwide sales is close to 20 million pounds.  Do the math.  Most of it is fake.  With respect to the Kapi Luwak, there is a great column written by humorist Dave Barry on the subject where he comments on the issue of fake Kapi Luwak - he says imagine being upset that your coffee has NOT been pooped out by a weasel  If I can find the column I'll try to post it.  Its pretty funny.  

What technique do you use to brew this coffee?  
Thanks,
Marko

Hahaaa. I can relate. It's crazy when you think about getting upset if your Civet coffee didn't really come from poop.

Well, I am almost as much of a coffee freak as I am a wet shaving freak, so I have various ways that I constantly dabble in making coffee. However, I have only prepared the Civet coffee 3 ways - I have brewed it via 'pour over' method (I have a 4 cup stainless steel Melitta pour over station which I love - through paper cone).  I have also prepared it by standard slow drip brewer (both with my Ninja CF082, and my Teknivorum KBG 741- both with paper cone and stainless steel mesh cone), and lastly by French press.

Although all phenomenal, my absolute favorite was French press method.

Take Kona coffee for instance, the total annual crop is in the neighbourhood of 2 million pounds, however, total annual worldwide sales is close to 20 million pounds.  Do the math.  Most of it is fake.  

I may have to check out the Civet coffee, although the concept is not very appealing. How much does the Kapi Luwak cost, and where is a reputable place to purchase it?

Hey gnocchi, it depends. I've seen it go for a much as around $200.00 a pound for authentic beans. Because there are more Kapi Luwak bean farmers ('foragers') and it's easier to get authentic beans, the coffee can be found considerably less expensive now (but still expensive when you compare it to other roasts). The bag I showed in the photo was about $25-$30 I think, though it's only 100g of whole beans and a pound contains around 450g, so that's about $120.00 a lb. lol.

You should give Afineur a try. Really great coffee, with a different (and poopless) method of fermenting the beans.

This morning's brew which eventually got blended into my Bulletproof coffee for a breakfast that keeps me energized and full.

KoHi Labs AeroPress Filter

I wasn't expecting my new metal fabric ultrafine filter for the AeroPress from KoHi Labs until Monday, so I was very excited to see it this afternoon. It will definitely be getting used later today. It has the benefits of a metal filter such as allowing more of the oils in, while maintaining the clean sediment-free cup you can get from a paper filter.

I roast my own and did a couple of batches earlier.

This morning's brew which eventually got blended into my Bulletproof coffee for a breakfast that keeps me energized and full.

KoHi Labs AeroPress Filter

I wasn't expecting my new metal fabric ultrafine filter for the AeroPress from KoHi Labs until Monday, so I was very excited to see it this afternoon. It will definitely be getting used later today. It has the benefits of a metal filter such as allowing more of the oils in, while maintaining the clean sediment-free cup you can get from a paper filter.

I'll be looking for a full report on the performance

I roast my own and did a couple of batches earlier.

I've been home roasting for over 20 years starting out doing my first roast in a cast iron frying pan.  It was ok.  I then used the hot air popcorn popper for a few years which did a great job except no cooling or chaff catching.  I used a few FreshRoast fluid bed roasters for a few years then eventually moved on to the HotTop which did a great job for about 10 years until it broke down.  I got a cheap Behmor which lasted about a year before it blew up.  Seriously, it started acting funny and then a big pop and a flash and smoke coming out the back - its no longer an actual coffee roaster.  It was a POS anyway, not as good as the Hottop but I guess you get what you pay for.  I'd been thinking about repairing the hot top but given the age and mileage on the rest of the unit I'm wondering if I'd be better off getting a new one.  They're not a small ticket item so I've  been taking my time and drinking bought coffee for about 4 months now that I get from a local roaster.  I may have shared this story elsewhere on DFS but a few months back this roaster changed up his packaging and I inadvertently bought a bag of decaf  and didn't know it for a week.  I won't get into my medical history but I thought I was having a stroke or otherwise dying for most of the week.  I went to the Dr. I had an ultrasound looking for blood clots I was seriously not feeling good.  The headache was epic, pain in my legs, incredible fatigue etc.  Then on the saturday morning I noticed small print on the coffee bag while I was measuring it out - Decaf!!!!!!WTF??!  I mean come on, small print on decaf?  It should be legally required to be in a bright red bag with skulls all over it and images of corpses which is what you will become if you drink the stuff.  I had a laugh, and bloody well got some caffeinated coffee into me pronto.  My wife had been drinking the stuff all week as well and feeling bagged but she would grab an extra large coffee downtown at work so it didn't affect her as much.  In doing internet searches on caffein withdrawal I learned that caffein withdrawal is a recognized Mental Disorder listed in the DSM-5.  If I'd killed someone during that week I could have used my caffein withdrawal as part of my insanity defence.  If I'd known I was going off caffein I would have at least had an explanation for how awful I felt.  Too funny but it will never happen again.

So I've been holding off on replacing the Hottop because I had been waiting to see what was going to come out of this https://www.ikawacoffee.com/product/ikaw...e-roaster/ The Ikawa hot air roaster has now been released and priced coming in at 1,200 pound sterling which puts it in the same range as the top end app enabled Hottop and a little more than the base level Hottop.  I'm not sure what to do at this point as I know the Hottop product well while the Ikawa is new but the fluid bed roasting does an incredible job of preserving the light ends and sparkling aromatics in a roast - superior to the convection roasting in that regard.  The cheapest alternative is repairing my Hottop but as I said, whats going to break next, I'm not really even sure whats wrong with it and if I sent in for a factory recondition I'm still working with 10+ year old machine.  In the meantime I'm drinking sub-optimal coffee and you know that not only is life is too short for bad coffee, its too short for less than the best cup you can produce.  Did I mention my espresso machine is on its last legs?  And the manufacturer went bankrupt years ago and I can't get it repaired.  What have I done to deserve this?  Its like I'm living the W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming! I just want a decent cup of coffee....

Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere  
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst  
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.  
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out  
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert  
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,  
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,  
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it  
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.  
The darkness drops again; but now I know  
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,  
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,  
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)