Until now, coffees were distinguished into washed or natural depending on the treatment, dry or humic, used to extract the coffee beans from the drupes Now it turns out that the most valuable, rare and most expensive coffee in the world is priced over 500 euros per kilogram because this product is prepared using berries swallowed, digested and evacuated by a mammal: the Luwak (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) native to Southeast Asia and southern China.
This product (Kopi Luwak is the name of the coffee prepared from the beans eaten by this cute mammal) is available to be drunk in a cup for the price of 5 euros at a few places scattered around Italy in cities such as Parma, Milan, Naples, Bologna, etc. Those who market such a product reveal that such critters eat the coffee berries, digest them, and the digestive process becomes a kind of "natural roasting" that gives the product a number of unique organoleptic qualities, with rhubarb aromas and an all-too-precise acidity.
But the final question is: is this a natural coffee, i.e., dried (inside the Luwak's intestines), or are we talking about a washed coffee (with intestinal "wet route" treatment)?
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