Researchers from Japan and Indonesia have developed the first scientific method to verify authenticity of exotic Kopi Luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee.
Asian palm civet, Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (TigrouMeow / CC BY 3.0).
“Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, is the world’s costliest coffee, often fetching $150-$200 per pound,” explained Dr Eiichiro Fukusaki from the Osaka University, Japan, who is a senior author of a paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Asian palm civets (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) – cat sized mammals native to South-east Asia and southern China – eat coffee berries, digest the soft fruit surrounding the bean and excrete the bean. Workers retrieve the coffee beans and clean, ferment and roast them.
The price makes Kopi Luwak a tempting target for fraud, with ordinary coffee sold as Kopi Luwak or real Kopi Luwak adulterated with cheap beans.
The scientists decided to find a way to scientifically identify the real deal.
They describe identifying unique chemical fingerprints that can be used to identify authentic Kopi Luwak and distinguish pure Kopi Luwak from Kopi Luwak that has been mixed with cheaper coffee.
Kopi Luwak (Ohallmann / CC BY 2.0).
“Citric acid, malic acid, and the inositol/pyroglutamic acid ratio were selected for further verification by evaluating their differentiating abilities against various commercial coffee products. The markers demonstrated potential application in the differentiation of original, fake Kopi Luwak, regular coffee, and coffee blend samples with 50 wt per cent Kopi Luwak content,” Dr Fukusaki and colleagues said.
“This is the first report to address the selection and successful validation of discriminant markers for the authentication of Kopi Luwak.”
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Bibliographic information: Udi Jumhawan et al. 2013. Selection of Discriminant Markers for Authentication of Asian Palm Civet Coffee (Kopi Luwak): A Metabolomics Approach. J. Agric. Food Chem., 61 (33), pp. 7994–8001; doi: 10.1021/jf401819s
