The second coffee in our rare and dare series is an unconventional twist of the infamous Kopi Luwak. Now before you toss the rotten eggs, do hear us out as it is not what it seems. What we have here is a highly experimental lot by our friends at CATUR Coffee in Indonesia.
 
CATUR Coffee Company is an exporting coffee company, sourcing & processing both specialty and commercial grade green bean coffees. Believing that, every part of the supply chain, from farmer to end consumer can be an agent of change,  the company is set out to tackle the challenge of crop consistency. With the combination of proprietary inoculants, processing techniques, as well as blending, they are able to offer the same taste profiles, every harvest year.
 
Back to their take on Kopi Luwak, the team worked on isolating the most desirable microbe from the Luwak’s (civet in bahasa) faeces then reproduced it in a lab environment. They then applied different enzymatic tests to assess which bacteria or yeasts grow in the applied medium. From there they pick the ones with the most desirable effect on the arabica coffee processing. In this case, they isolate Kluyveromyces marxianus which helps break down the natural fruit sugar and pectin. This particular microbe is found to contain a significant amount of the fumarase enzyme, which breaks down fumaric acid into malic acid. Malic acid is one of the significant organic acids found in Kopi Luwak.
 
After successfully cultivating Fumarese, they applied it in their Kamala water-free processing on Panama Janson Gesha. It is fruity, boozy and out-of-this world. Most importantly, no Luwak is harmed throughout and the beans come in no contact with any poop.