Kopi luwak is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten

and defecated by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). It is therefore also called
civet coffee. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines, and after being
defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected.[1] Asian palm civets are increasingly caught
in the wild and traded for this purpose.[2]

Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, and
in East Timor. It is also widely gathered in the forest or produced in farms in the islands of the
Philippines,[3] where the product is called kape motit in the Cordillera region, kapé alamíd in
Tagalog areas, kapé melô or kapé musang in Mindanao, and kahawa kubing in the Sulu
Archipelago. Weasel coffee is a loose English translation of its Vietnamese name cà phê Chồn.

Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two
mechanisms, selection – civets choosing to eat only certain cherries – and digestion – biological
or chemical mechanisms in the animal's digestive tract altering the composition of the coffee
cherries.

The traditional method of collecting feces from wild Asian palm civets has given way to an
intensive farming method, in which the palm civets are kept in battery cages and are force-fed
the cherries. This method of production has raised ethical concerns about the treatment of civets
and the conditions they are made to live in, which include isolation, poor diet, small cages and a
high mortality rate.[4][5][6]

Although kopi luwak is a form of processing rather than a variety of coffee, it has been called
one of the most expensive coffees in the world, with retail prices reaching €550 to US$700 per
kilogram.[7]