photos by Jan Dekker

Wherever you live, whatever your tastes, from time to time one comes across something special in foods or food ingredients. These delicacies are to gastronomy what haute couture is to fashion. For some, they constitute a 'must have', for others, an occasional taste of luxurious living. Gourmet offerings such as foie gras, beluga caviar, bluefin tuna, saffron (the most expensive spice in the world), truffles and Kobe beef are present in the most indulgent meals in the world of fine dining. I often think with 17,000 islands in Indonesia, there must be something luxurious we can champion in international culinary circles.

What is essentially Indonesian in origin, exotic yet robust enough to be shipped thousands of miles to the best restaurants in every continent and still retain uniqueness in the competitive world of food? Perhaps the answer lies in coffee luwak the most expensive coffee in the world and yes, it comes from Indonesia: Sumatera, to be exact. Yes coffee luwak can be found in the Philippines and Vietnam, but the rarity of coffee luwak from Indonesia is the most well known.

You will be surprised at the price of coffee luwak. In international markets for 1lb, say 450gr it retails for US$ 300. Big spenders can buy it for over US$ 600 a kilo. Recently a friend bought me 1 kg of coffee luwak in beans, direct from a farmer in Sumatera at a price of Rp 1 million. It was not ready to consume as it had not yet been roasted. Finding a roaster is another long story, and there is not the space here to tell it.

Can you buy this luxury in Jakarta? Yes. You can join the coffee elite for as little as Rp 150,000 for 50gr or Rp 3 million per kilogram at Bintara Art Gallery, Jl.Wolter Monginsidi 43, Kebayoran Baru. To protect the provenance of coffee luwak, this gallery will only sell the coffee in beans. You must grind it yourself – all part of the process of enjoying the coffee.

Why is coffee luwak so expensive? Well this is the interesting bit. Like any other luxurious item in the world, this coffee is rare, primarily because the process to create the final product is rather complicated.