What You Didn't Know About the World's Most Expensive Coffee

We've talked about kopi luwak a lot here on Neatorama, and we know that it comes from the poop of the civet. But did you know that this comes at a cost to the said animal?

Researchers from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and the London-based nonprofit World Animal Protection assessed the living conditions of nearly 50 wild civets held in cages at 16 plantations on Bali. The results, published Thursday in the journal Animal Welfare, paint a grim picture.

Some of the civets were very thin, from being fed a restricted diet of only coffee cherries—the fruit that surrounds the coffee bean. Some were obese, from never being able to move around freely. And some were jacked up on caffeine, D’Cruze said.

And that's not all. Check this article on National Geographic to learn more about the most disturbing secret behind the world's most expensive coffee. - via Metafilter

(Image credit: Victor Loh/Unsplash)