How is it that the most expensive coffee in the world is extracted from the excrement of a marten?

Tourists who have returned from Indonesia or the Philippines like to tell what delicious coffee they tried there. It is called luwak. But only wealthy citizens can afford to eat it at home. This type of coffee is the most expensive in the world, the wholesale price starts from 15 thousand rubles per kilogram. And all because of the exotic method of obtaining. 

Luwak, let's say, is produced by musangs (aka Malay palm martens). These animals eat ripe coffee fruits, but digest only the pulp surrounding the grains. The grains themselves remain intact, except that the stomach juice breaks down some proteins, giving the grains a special taste. I wonder how people came up with the idea of extracting coffee from the excrement of musangs?

Luwak began to be mined in the early XX century in Bali. At that time, the Dutch colonialists forbade the indigenous population to drink coffee, considering that they were not supposed to have a status. Water, they say, is quite enough. But the Balinese, who loved coffee with a tender love, easily deceived the Europeans. 

The fact that the Musangs do not digest coffee beans to the end, the natives knew for a long time, and this knowledge came in handy. The Dutch, watching the natives collect animal poop, thought that these savages had finally gone mad.

In the middle of the century, when Indonesia had already gained independence, this strange gastronomic custom drew the attention of a sneaky Japanese who came to Bali in search of exotics. He asked for permission to taste the drink and was delighted with the tenderness and originality of the taste. After that, luwak was known all over the world. 

The wholesale price of the original luvak today can not be lower than $ 250 per kilogram. After all, one musang can give out no more than 50 grams of coffee beans per day. To do this, he needs to eat about a kilogram of fruit.

If the price is lower, then it is either a merciless mix with ordinary arabica, or luvak, produced on animal farms, where the animals are fed with unripe small fruits. In the wild, they choose only the juiciest ones.