Our Process
Our Kopi Luwak is the most luxurious and rare specialty coffee on earth. It takes over a hundred experts working together in decorous harmony to produce the epitome of flavor, aroma and body found only in this 100% Authentic Wild Kopi Luwak.
The finest coffee on earth
Our Kopi Luwak is indeed complex; found only in small quantities, without predictable output. The climate, soil, bean varieties and culture of the Gayo farmers have as much a part to play in its excellence as the Civet whose traces they treasure. The production of Gayo Kopi is a celebration of these unique qualities coming together as one, in a coffee that has mastered every aspect of its creation.
The Gayo Highlands
The story begins in the Gayo Highlands of Sumatra Indonesia, where intense rain and sun combine with steep elevations to foster a multiplicity of thriving wildlife and plants. It is a wild landscape, scattered with perfectly organic and remote smallholdings whose coffee cherries – the ripe, red fruits of the coffee plant – are browsed upon by wild civets visiting from the jungle. Each civet enjoys a varied diet, feasting on perfectly ripe exotic jungle fruits as they patrol their natural territory.
Digestion & the Enzymatic Process
The civets digest the fruit, but leave behind the coffee beans in their droppings; beans that have been transformed through a natural, active enzymatic process during digestion. It is this essential processes – the selection of perfect, mixed fruits by nature’s master blenders, and the subsequent enzymatic action – that give Gayo Kopi its depth of character. It is a complexity that cannot be reproduced in any other way. Only wild luwak enjoys the range, ripeness and quality of coffee cherries, the health and vitality of the wild civet, and the magic imparted by the natural diet of the fecund forest slopes.
Collection & Tracibility
Our farms employ over a hundred farmers, scattered across some of the most remote villages of the Gayo highlands, who search for the civet’s traces on their organic smallholdings. Each farm has been inspected, their locations precisely measured and logged by GPS, to ensure Gayo Kopi has every record necessary to maintain full accountability and traceability of its wild kopi luwak.
Inspection at the Source
Our farmers inspect their ranges each morning before their other work begins, searching for only the freshest kopi luwak before the sun’s rays warm the canopy above, and the rich volcanic earth beneath them. They contact their local collector immediately upon finding this treasure, awaiting his arrival and inspection at the farm.
Confirmation & Processing
If the wild kopi luwak meets our standards, it is processed as soon as possible. In many cases, the raw product can go from civet to climate-controlled storage in less than three hours. Beans that meet our swift collection demands are immediately brought to our collection facility and washed, with the water itself being preserved for analysis. This allows our inspectors to confirm the diet of the civet as being wild once they see what else was contained in the original sample. Speed is of the essence. Leaving the beans for longer causes them to denature through bacterial processes; our full-time dispatch network and local base means that we can protect the beans. Their true nature is priceless, and we treat them as such.
Certification, Cleansing & Drying
Once within our mountain base at Takengon, each bean is sorted for quality four times, and scored according to our index of wild luwak markers, guaranteeing that every batch is truly wild, and its source farm logged for tracability. At this point the beans are washed in mountain spring water before spending 7-10 days in our drying room, always in separate batches according them to the farm, altitude and month of collection.
Aged to Perfection
The beans are stored at a constant temperature and humidity, at a similar altitude to the slopes where they were grown. This allows them to share moisture and gently decompress, which results in a more rounded, even flavor distribution, and can take several months to achieve.
Sampling & Study
As the volatility of their youth passes, the flavors mellow, and the natural sugars in the coffee beans are allowed to develop. Each coffee is sampled before it proceeds, which gives us a precise grasp on the exact months, locations and weather that are creating the very finest Kopi Luwak. Each year is different; each season brings new flavors and combinations of circumstances. Our processors are building a depth and breadth of reference to master the precise set of conditions that make an ideal Kopi Luwak, echoing the finest traditions of winemaking with the advent of terroir coffee and future vintages.
Direct From the Farm
After the aging process, green beans are shipped directly to us from our central collection facility in Sumatra. Our coffee is roasted to order using a proprietary roasting process that allows the unique flavors of our Kopi Luwak to truly be brought to life. Every nuance in our coffee reflects the ultimate in taste, human endeavour and discernment. No other coffee can match its sheer depth, richness and complexity.
