I bought 2lbs of green kopi luwak from the green beanery in toronto. I home roast (hottop primarily). the beans cost $170CAD or about $140US before shipping/taxes. i will quote prices in canadian. what i actually got was 908g which works out to $18.40/100g. i roasted 75g in a Fresh Roast +8 so i could do a small batch instead of doing a full 250g in the hottop so i could see what it was like to roast. 250g costs almost $50 so i didnt want to potentially waste that even though its harder to nail a roast on the FR+8. after the roast which turned out full city, 75g of green resulted in 64g of roasted or a 15% drop in weight. that means the 908g of green will result in 772g of roasted bring the cost to $21.65/100g of roasted. so we are talking about $2.17 for a cup of brewed coffee (10g) or around $1.52 for a shot of espresso (7g). kopi luwak is 14x more expensive than regular average coffee based on buying green beans and roasting.

price aside. the roast was very interesting in that it stayed in the second crack quite a long time before it was full city. i timed 30 second once second crack was rolling and 45 second from the absolute start of the second cracking sounds. first crack lasted almost a minute as well. total time in the FR+8 was 6:45 which is maybe a little longer than average.

the green beans have a musty smell to them mixed with the typical green bean grassy smell. the beans are a little smaller and browner than typical. you'd expect them to be brown having been passed through the digestive tract of a mammal and then shat out.

while they were roasting the smells were typical of other green beans but with an added subtle smell of dirty feet. i suppose one could summarize the smells of the green coffee and roasting as "this stuff smells like sh*t" which, it should because, well, it is.

after roasting i let the beans sit for a few hours. then i preened out all the remaining chaff because with this expensive coffee i didnt want any chaff in my brew. my first taste test was to brew 20g of beans in a drip brewer (krups) that has a 6 hole shower and pumps out 200F water. i did a 30oz carafe with 20g of beans. i know thats a little light on the beans, but i know i can get a decent cup with that amount.

the brewed coffee is very dark with a dark reddish/brown hue and a little more cloudy than usual. there was some nice oil floating on the top so the brew was good. im not an experienced cupper so i cant relate the flavour to you in typical cupping terms. i'll do my best otherwise.

the aroma is floral and light, quite pleasing actually. you can tell from the aroma that its a unique coffee. there is a hint of cherry and spice in the aroma. but over-all the aroma is very light and subtle. the roasted beans themselves have a much stronger aroma of sweetness.

now for the brew... it tastes like sh*t. well, actually no. but i had to say it. everyone does when it comes to kopi luwak. its a very light smooth nutty taste. i guess the luwak ate nuts. ewwwww... very low acidity and no bitterness. it has a nice light chocolaty, woody, nutty taste. the first cup was harder to palate than the second as i got used to the taste which is not like any other coffee i've tried. i has a long pleasing after taste.

over-all i am very impressed. being so unique and so smooth its a very interesting and wonderful coffee experience. i cant say i would keep buying it, only because of the price. but from time to time i could see treating myself to a couple pounds now and again as it comes available. this more to do with affordability than with it being worth the price. is it worth $2.20 per cup for the beans? yes. totally.



Here is the roasting profile from a batch of 260g I did in the Hottop B. This is a lighter roast than the one above which I did in a FR+8. Total roast time (not including drying, that is from the start of crack 1 to eject) was about 4m30s. I have no idea what was going on with the environmental temp (green line) so just disregard that.

Thanks for the interesting report! I always love hearing about new coffees here. Going to try it as espresso?

The end of second crack? Is that correct or did you mean the end of first. The end of second crack would leave you with charcoal. A Vienna roast not a full city which would be around the beginning of second crack.

cannonfodder wrote:The end of second crack? Is that correct or did you mean the end of first. The end of second crack would leave you with charcoal. A Vienna roast not a full city which would be around the beginning of second crack.

Considering where that coffee "has been," I'd go for a high final temperature in order to sterilize any remaining fecal matter.

ken

cannonfodder wrote:The end of second crack? Is that correct or did you mean the end of first. The end of second crack would leave you with charcoal. A Vienna roast not a full city which would be around the beginning of second crack.

Trust me the coffee is strange. Had i stopped it at the end of the first crack it would have been very light. I went mainly on colour rather than BM or cracks. The find roast was right where i wanted it, colour-wise. maybe its FC+ but not by much.

also tried an espresso. very strange! using my usual method on my silvia, it produced tons of red crema, more-so than i am used to getting and it was very very strong. so strong actually i couldnt drink it. not that it didnt taste good. it tasted really good. so there is something about kopi luak that infuses very efficiently.

plexus wrote:Trust me the coffee is strange. Had i stopped it at the end of the first crack it would have been very light. I went mainly on colour rather than BM or cracks. The find roast was right where i wanted it, colour-wise. maybe its FC+ but not by much.

also tried an espresso. very strange! using my usual method on my silvia, it produced tons of red crema, more-so than i am used to getting and it was very very strong. so strong actually i couldnt drink it. not that it didnt taste good. it tasted really good. so there is something about kopi luak that infuses very efficiently.

I'm no expert on civet scatology, however is it possible that what you roasted was not in fact coffee beans?

LOL... Nothing more substantive to add here (or that I'd want to at this stage - other than curious what it'll do added to another coffee/blend as espresso as Dan remarked), but this thread is cracking me up...