Today, I am happy to visit My Liberica's coffee plantation at the invitation of Jason, the owner. My Liberica's plantation near Bukit Batu in Johor has tens of acres of Liberica coffee bushes.
Jason, who is passionate about coffee, showed us around his Liberica plantation which included a thrilling bouncy ride on his 4-wheel drive station wagon.
We were lucky to visit during the harvesting season. These are reddish coloured Liberica coffee berries (the size of grapes) ripe for harvesting.
Workers hand pick the ripe coffee berries - very hard work under the scorching hot sun.
Credit: Wikipedia
Also coveting the coffee berries are the Palm Civet Cats that live free in the plantation among the oil palms and coffee bushes. Perhaps better than humans, civet cats know how to cherry pick the best berries.
Inside the coffee berry are two seeds wrapped in a thin layer of juicy sweet tasting flesh. Civet cats love the flesh wrapping the coffee seeds.
Sometimes, civet cats get to the coffee berry before the pickers. This coffee berry had it's seeds eaten by a civet cat.
After swallowing the coffee berries, the cat digests the flesh and pass out the coffee seeds with the excrement. Civet cat droppings are found in random places, littered around My Liberica's sprawling coffee plantation.
At the My Liberica plantation, workers search for and collect this civet cat excrement. One can easily appreciate that the work is tedious and time consuming. Supply is also limited.
(In some other places, captive civet cats held in small wire cages are force fed coffee berries to mass produce the coveted civet cat droppings with coffee seeds. This practice is frowned upon by animal welfare advocates.)
The harvested civet cat excrement is washed clean and roasted.
The bottle of the prized roasted Kopi Luwak beans at My Liberica specialty coffee boutique.
Jason let us try My Liberica's Kopi Luwak.
Only the required amount of roasted Kopi Luwak beans are grounded just before brewing to ensure that it is always the freshest.
The freshly ground Kopi Luwak powder. It has the most robust, densest, and richest coffee fragrance that I have smelled so far. I love it.
The freshly ground coffee powder are poured into the siphon coffee maker.
Jason stirs the coffee with a bamboo stirrer and checks whether the coffee is ready using the most precise instrument known to mankind - the trained nose.
Kopi Luwak at My Liberica RM58++
The freshly brewed aromatic Kopi Luwak.
Both of my coffee kakis who are experienced coffee enthusiasts were impressed with My Liberica's Kopi Luwak. They liked the sophistication of the Kopi Luwak flavours which come in layers, like waves of pleasure one following another. They shared that My Liberica's Kopi Luwak's flavours is multidimensional whereas "normal" coffee is relatively uninteresting in comparison.
As a coffee novice with lots more to learn, I enjoyed My Liberica's Kopi Luwak because I like the robust, clean coffee flavour. I couldn't detect any acidity, so the coffee felt smooth and was enjoyable on the tongue.
At RM58++ for a small cup, My Liberica's Kopi Luwak is a novel luxury most may only indulge in out of curiosity occasionally. Some coffee connoisseurs with an acquired taste may treat themselves to this more often.
If you like to try Kopi Luwak, I recommend My Liberica because you are assured that it is genuine wild civet cat coffee beans harvested ethically.
Restaurant name: My Liberica Specialty Coffee
Address: 73, Jalan Molek 3/10, Taman Molek, Johor
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7ZUXG
GPS: 1.521567,103.784838
Hours: Monday to Thursday 12:00noon to 10:00pm. Friday to Sunday 9:30am to 11:30pm.
No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Date visited: 18 Nov 2013
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