The popularity of luwak coffee has also given rise to a variety of spin-off products that use other animals. The report highlighted the inadequate living conditions and negative impacts on luwaks as a result of caged commercial production. But in 2016, researchers from Oxford University and the London-based World Animal Protection assessed the living conditions of nearly 50 wild luwaks held in cages at 16 plantations on Bali. If the problem was isolated to a few wayward producers, then it might be case of some bad apples spoiling the barrel. RELATED TRIP: SEE THE BEST OF BALI IN NINE DAYS Holding them within close distance of each other, and keeping them awake during daylight hours for visitors, can cause them distress. The problem is that luwaks are naturally solitary creatures, and nocturnal. Luwaks are also confined to cages for better use of space, and so camera-touting tourists can visit and watch them in action. Restricting the luwak’s diet to coffee fruit also results in nutritional deficiencies, which can cause health problems. But coffee farming practices have created commercial luwak farms where the animals are forced onto a diet of coffee beans in order to maximise production. In the wild, the luwak enjoys a rich and varied diet of insects, seeds and fruit – including papaya, pineapples and coffee. Luwak droppings with coffee beans before being processed.

Whether you enjoy a latte, long black, or old-fashioned espresso, here’s why you should give luwak coffee a miss. The reality is that if travellers saw how luwaks were being treated, they wouldn’t buy a cup, no matter how cute the packaging was. The time and expense of farming these coffee beans, plus demand fed by millions of curious tourists visiting Indonesia each year, has helped drive up prices and support an unregulated industry with animal abuse at its centre. The belief is that the digestive enzymes remove the acidity from the coffee beans, resulting in a smoother cup of joe. An average cup of ‘kopi luwak’ in Bali can set you back US$35 to US$80. The beans pass through its digestive tract and presto, out pops a nugget of coffee. You see, this lithe-bodied, curious creature produces some of the rarest coffee in the world thanks to its love of eating coffee cherries. But the Indonesian luwak is quite different to any of these creatures. One that somehow snuck aboard a tampa to Indonesia and accidentally found itself a long way from home. Maybe even a raccoon? Perhaps even an Australian possum. At first glance you might think a luwak ( loo-wak) is just an unusually long cat.

Lintong coffee wild kopi luwak