Behind The Harvest
Nature's Rarest Brew – Genuinely Wild
I had a week left in Indonesia and no plan — only a conviction that somewhere at the edge of the jungle, genuinely wild kopi luwak still existed. So I went to find it.
The Spark
It began on a tour of Bali, at a small tea-and-coffee farm — the stop I'd most looked forward to, and where I first met kopi luwak. The woman pouring for us explained what it was, and I was taken with the cup.
But the visit showed its other side: behind the tasting sat caged civets, the animals the coffee comes from. I love animals, and it felt harsh — it stayed with me. Later, our tour guide offered another picture: in the Gayo Highlands of Sumatra, wild kopi luwak still exists on farms bordering the jungle, gathered from civets that roam free and, led by scent, take only the ripest cherries. No cages.
Into the Unknown
When the tour ended, I had a week left before my flight home to London. Instead of a beach, I set myself a challenge: reach the Gayo Highlands and find this coffee myself — no contacts, only a stubborn belief that if I looked hard enough, I would. I booked a flight to Medan and went.
The Brothers
From Medan I was due to fly on to Takengon, deep in the highlands. On the morning of the flight I couldn't find a soul at the airport desk to issue a boarding pass — and I'll admit, I started to panic. Two brothers approached, calmed me down, and promised the flight would come. When I told them why I'd come, they were sure I was mad: a stranger with no plan, chasing a coffee across the world. That plane flies once a week — it was my lucky day. Eight seats, a small propeller, the two of them beside me.
They turned out to be coffee farmers from Bener Meriah, in the heart of Gayo — and when we landed, with no transport or hotel to my name, they simply took me in.
Among the Gayo
I spent four nights with the brothers, moving between their farms, eating fruit fresh from the land and drinking some of the finest coffee I've ever tasted. I saw how it's truly made — cherries dried, fermented, and sorted entirely by hand, the women working bean by bean with extraordinary care. I met their teams of farmers, roasters and sorters, and everywhere there were children — the children of Gayo, as I came to think of them. They kept me in their homes for four nights, never let me pay a penny, and asked for nothing in return. Remarkable people.
Into the Wild
And then, the reason I'd come. Where the farms give way to the jungle, I did the thing I'd travelled thousands of miles to do: track the wild civets and find raw kopi luwak myself — on the forest floor, exactly as nature leaves it. No cages. Just wild animals, free to roam, and cherries chosen by instinct. That is the whole of it — the difference between what I'd seen in Bali and what I came to find.
From Highland to London
That was when I decided to bring this coffee back to the West. Eight months on, I've built a brand — and, more importantly, real relationships with the brothers and farmers behind it. Every bag of Gayo Wild begins where my journey did: firsthand, authentic kopi luwak from wild, free-roaming civets, no cages anywhere in the chain — gathered, roasted and sealed by the farmers themselves in the Gayo Highlands, then flown direct to London, and on to you.
Discover the CoffeeFrom Their Hands to Yours
Most coffee passes through factories, co-packers and contract roasters on its way to you. Gayo Wild doesn't. Every stage happens at the farms, by the people who grew it:
Hand-Gathered
At the jungle's edge, from wild, free-roaming civets.
Hand-Sorted
Bean by bean, by the women of Gayo.
Hand-Roasted
Small batches, the traditional Gayo way, at the farms.
Sealed at the Farm
One-way CO₂ valve, fitted by the farmers for freshness.
Direct to Your Door
Flown to London, then straight on to you.
The only hands this coffee passes through are the farmers' — and yours.
Each bag is weighed, filled and finished by hand at the farm — and may carry the small signatures of a handmade journey. We consider them proof that no factory ever touched your coffee.
Certifications matter — but they only go so far. My story is real, and the pictures and the film are the proof.
The story is the heart of it — the proof stands quietly behind it. Independent certification, animal-welfare cooperation and full farm-to-bag traceability back every claim we make.
Taste What You've Seen
The 2026 harvest — roasted and sealed at the farms you've just read about — has arrived in London.
And to share the journey in a cup — A Taste of Gayo, our tasting set and London event, coming soon.
The 2026 harvest has arrived in London — ready to ship, free UK delivery.