The Asian Palm Civet in the South Pacific region of the world feeds on coffee berries. Once ingested, the enzymes in this animals stomach breakdown the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste, but leave the inner bean intact. These beans then travel through their digestive tract, and 'make their exit', so to speak. At this point, the beans are collected, washed, lightly roasted and sold as a coffee known as 'Kopi Luwak'. This coffee sells, on average, for about $600 per pound in the U.S. Using flavor combinations of java, mocha, vanilla bean, cocoa bean, and coffee, Oliveros has done it's best to recreate this taste in a cigar. I can't say that I've ever tried Kope Luwak, and as a matter of fact, I had never heard of it until I was done smoking this cigar. However, my experience in taste during this one was a bit varied.
The first 1/3 of the cigar had a very earthy flavor, reminding me mostly of leather and dirt. I was a bit turned off by this, but decided to hang on as I'm aware the cigars like to change flavor as they burn. Into the second 1/3, the leather taste seemed the most dominant with a strong undercurrent of black coffee. It ended heavy on the leather still, while the coffee flavor seemed to ebb a bit more and an almost peppery flavor nipped at my tongue. The draw was nice and easy all the way through. My only issue was with the burn. I botched the light up a bit, and despite my effort to touch it up twice, I never could manage to even it out.
Verdict: Overall, this cigar wasn't too bad. Construction was nice, it was easy to smoke, and only took about 45 minutes to do so. Great for someone like me who has kids and can't lavish over a cigar for 1 1/2 -2 hours. In the end though, I'm not the biggest fan of black coffee (cream and sugar for me, thanks), so this one wasn't quite up my alley.
The Kopi Luwak Story
The Luwak (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) denizen of the coffee (kopi) plantations of Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, eats only the ripest coffee cherries.
Unable to digest the coffee beans, the Luwak graciously deposits them on the jungle floor where they are eagerly collected by the locals.
The stomach acids and enzymatic action involved in this unique fermentation process produces the beans for the world’s rarest coffee beverage.
