Rare Coffee Found Safe to Drink

By all accounts, the rarest coffee on the planet is known as Kopi Luwak. It has also probably one of the most curious histories on the planet.

Apparently, this coffee is derived from the dietary habits of an Indonesian feral cat which lives in coffee plantations in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi.

This cat, known as the Luwak, eats ripe coffee cherries, which are only part way digested before the animal deposits its waste onto the jungle floor. These berries are then eagerly collected by plantation workers and marketed as coffee.

The unique fermentation process is accomplished by the Luwak's stomach acids and enzymatic actions. And at $600.00 a pound, Kopi Luwak is considered by some as the creme de la creme of coffee drinking.

The unique background of Kopi Luwak coffee has drawn the interest of scientists at the University of Guelph in Canada, who wanted to know if the coffee was actually safe to drink. After stringent testing, they found little evidence that it was dangerous. Apparently, the Luwak's stomach acids acts as a kind of washing agent, partially breaking down the outer husk of the bean. No taste tests were performed at the university, but scientists plan to conduct some in the future.