An detailed look at Vietnamese weasel coffee & its making process

Vietnam is famous as the world’s second largest coffee exporter with the high quality products and the diversity of coffee types. One of the most special coffee types must be Vietnamese weasel coffee with uniquely tasty flavor and the procedure to produce the final products.

1 - Origin of Vietnamese weasel coffee

Weasel coffee (poop coffee), also known as Kopi Luwak in Indonesian, is weasel poop coffee, which may sound funny to many travelers, but in fact it is one of the most exclusive coffees all over the world. The weasels swallow the flesh and seeds inside of the coffee and leave out the outer shell. Once the coffee passes through the stomachs of the weasels, it is fermented by proteolytic enzymes, which break down the proteins in the coffee beans. This process helps to remove the bitterness from the beans and creates the special nuts and chocolate-like aroma as well as the extremely smooth taste.
Vietnamese weasel coffee is not the first kind of weasel coffee traded in the world. Weasel coffee was discovered in the beginning of 18th century in Indonesia when the country was under the colony of the Dutch. The farmers were banned from harvesting coffee beans to serve personal needs, which led to the fact that the coffee beans fell out almost everywhere and were accidentally eaten by weasels. Then, the farmers noticed that the weasels could not digest and absorb coffee beans. Therefore, the Vietnamese poop coffee beans were excreted along with their poops. The fermentation process inside the stomach of the weasels helps the roasted coffee beans crispier and have more delicious flavors compared to normal types of coffee.

2 - Vietnamese weasel coffee price

After the introduction of the coffee weasel in the west in 1990, weasel coffee rose to prominence worldwide, which made the price of weasel coffee extremely high. The current weasel coffee Vietnam price varies from 20 million to 70 million VND ($862 - 3,017) per kilogram.
To understand why the weasel coffee is really expensive, let’s take a look at a couple of reasons below:
- Firstly, it is because of the very low productivity. The weasel can be only found in several certain regions and countries in the world like Vietnam, Ethiopia, and Indonesia, etc. and the amount of weasel coffee manufactured is modest, too. It is calculated that the output of the weasel coffee every year in Vietnam only ranges from 200 to 300kg
- Secondly, the Vietnamese weasel coffee has very special and unique flavors which can not be found anywhere else. The beans taste smooth and earthy with caramel chocolate flavor, not too fiercely bitter yet still intense enough to awaken the palate of the diners. When enjoying a cup of weasel coffee, you will experience different “layers” of flavor and aroma. The very first scent is the aroma of ripe fruit, next the chocolate and malt flavors, which “lingers your throat” in many minutes. Vietnamese poop coffee is predominantly manufactured in Dak Lak province, Buon Ma Thuot city, Dalat city and Binh Phuoc province.

3 - How to Vietnamese weasel coffee?

In terms of steps to make weasel coffee in Vietnam, there are 5 main steps, namely collecting beans, purifying, sun-drying coffee beans, husk separating, and roasting the beans. Among these steps, roasting seems to be the most determinant one significantly affecting the aroma and taste of the final products. The time for roasting procedure mu