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Getting It Right

How to Brew It

Kopi Luwak is low in acidity and high in body, which makes it forgiving — but also easy to flatten. Three things matter more than your equipment: the grind, the water temperature, and drinking the first cup black.

The Rules

Three Things That Matter Most

  1. Grind fresh, every time

    These are whole beans for a reason. Ground coffee loses its aromatics within minutes, and at this price that is a waste. Grind immediately before brewing.

  2. Water at 92–94°C, not boiling

    Boiling water scorches a low-acidity coffee and strips the sweetness. Boil the kettle, then wait about sixty seconds before pouring.

  3. Drink the first cup black

    This coffee is smooth enough not to need milk, and milk buries the cocoa, caramel and spice you paid for. Add milk on the second cup if you still want to.

The Ritual

Four Steps, Unhurried

The cafetière method, which flatters this coffee most.

Hands turning a burr grinder beside a scale holding a copper bowl of roasted beans
01Weigh and grind15g of whole beans, ground medium-coarse moments before you brew.
A black and copper gooseneck kettle resting on an oak counter with a thermometer
02Let the kettle restBring it to the boil, then give it a minute to settle at 92–94°C.
Water poured in a slow stream from a gooseneck kettle into a glass cafetiere of ground coffee
03Pour, then wait225g of water in a slow stream. Four minutes, undisturbed.
A hand lifting a black ceramic cup of steaming coffee, a cafetiere behind
04Plunge and pourPress slowly and serve at once. The first cup, black.

Ratios

Three Ways to Make It

The baseline everywhere is 1:15 — 15g of coffee to 225g of water, about one large cup. Start there, then adjust to taste rather than starting somewhere else.

Cafetière

Grind
Medium-coarse
Ratio
15g / 225g
Water
92–94°C
Time
4 minutes

The method that flatters this coffee most. It keeps the oils that carry the body, which is the whole point of a cup like this. Plunge slowly.

Pour-over

Grind
Medium-fine
Ratio
15g / 225g
Water
92–94°C
Bloom
30 seconds

Cleaner in the cup, and the one that shows the caramel most clearly. Bloom with twice the coffee's weight in water, then pour in slow circles.

AeroPress

Grind
Medium-fine
Ratio
15g / 225g
Water
92–94°C
Time
90s + 30s press

The most forgiving and the most repeatable. If you are nervous about wasting a rare coffee, start here.

Two More

Espresso, and the Sumatran Way

Espresso. Fine grind, 18g in, 36g out, 27–30 seconds. It works, but it spends a great deal of a very rare coffee on a very small cup. We would start elsewhere.

Traditional Sumatran. Fine grind, hot water poured straight over it in the cup, left to settle before drinking. No filter, no equipment. This is how it is drunk in Gayo, and it is worth trying at least once.

Tasting

What to Look For

Give the cup ten minutes. Kopi Luwak changes as it cools more than most coffees do, and the caramel and spice usually arrive after the initial cocoa.

You are looking for a velvety body, very low acidity, dark cocoa and a gentle earthiness. What you should not find is sourness or a muddy finish — those are the faults the natural fermentation removes, and their presence is a reasonable sign of caged production.

Keeping It

Storage

  • Leave the beans in the pouch. It has a one-way valve, which is the right environment.
  • Somewhere cool, dark and dry. Not the fridge — condensation is worse than air.
  • Squeeze the air out before resealing.
  • Best within eight weeks of opening, though it will not spoil after that.

Keep Reading

Related

The Collection

Whole roasted beans from the Gayo Highlands, sealed at origin.

Our Story

Who grew it, and how it reached you.

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Something to Brew

Wild Kopi Luwak from the Gayo Highlands, whole beans, sealed at origin.

The Collection