World’s Rarest Coffee Brews

1. Kopi Luwak

Kopi (or Coffee) Luwak which originates from Sumatra, Indonesia is regarded as a rare type of coffee in the world. The current cost for a pound of Kopi Luwak is around $300 or more, making it the world's most expensive coffee. Besides the excellent taste of the coffee, the coffee is considered rare due to the way it is produced.

The coffee cherries are not hand-picked like the other premium coffees in the market. The beans are in fact collected from the feces of a civet cat animal (scientific name: Paradoxurus) which the locals call "Luwak". It is believed that these mammals are the world's best coffee cherry picker. They pick the ripe and red coffee cherries and eat them up. It is said that the coffee beans will undergo a fermentation process in the civet cat's digestive system, which may describe its exotic taste. The coffee beans will come out of the civet cat system (as poops) intact. The feces will be collected and the coffee beans will be cleaned.

Coffee lovers who have tasted this coffee said that it has a rich flavor with hints of caramel and chocolaty taste. Some also describe it as smooth, earthy and musty. Actually, similar coffee can be found in Vietnam and it is called “caphe cut chon” by the locals (which literally means fox-dung coffee).

2. Coffee Stout

A Japanese cafe manager in Mito, Japan came out with an idea to produce alcoholic drink using coffee beans. With the help of a local brewery, he introduced “Coffee Stout” which is packed in a 330ml bottle, costing 650 yen per bottle. The alcoholic beverage tastes sweet with smooth taste of coffee. In fact the innovative café manager plans to expand the idea of producing coffee-based drinks such as “Coffee Sake” in the near future.

3. Reishi Coffee

“Reishi” means red mushrooms in Japanese. Coffee blend which include Reishi is normally consumed for the maintenance of health and general well-being. This healthy drink has been commercialized by a number of companies and has increasingly becomes common now. However, the ones produced under an American brand called ReishiGo is quite unusual. This special blend of Reishi coffee contains the whole Reishi mushroom including the fruit body, cracked spores, and mycelium, which claims to be more potent in terms of de-oxidation and efficacy. Actually you can see the said mushroom floating in the coffee.

4. Cold brew

To most people, brewing coffee minus the heat is quite impossible. The idea of commercializing the method of brewing coffee without the heat or cold brewing came from a chemical engineer, Todd Simpson. It is said that in 1964 he got the idea in a small café in Guatemala. This is when he received a small decanter of cool concentrate and some boiling water upon ordering. This makes him wonder whether his mother, who couldn't stomach coffee, might be able to enjoy the cold coffee instead. Eventually his mother could and this leads him to develop the cold brewing device known as the “Toddy system” which is being commercialized now. In fact, Seattle's Best Coffee outlets have been using the Toddy system and there are also beginning to sell the Toddy device in the said outlets.

Todd Simpson believes that it may be an ancient Peruvian method, and coffee concentrates first showed up in 19th-century America. Another theory traces it back to Java. However, nobody knows for sure where cold coffee brewing method came from.

The device includes a plastic pitcher with a fabric filter, sitting atop a carafe that catches the finished product. There is no electricity needed as it works only on gravity, a pound of ground beans and nine cups of cold water, and also 10 to 12 hours steeping time. It is said that the coffee produced through this method is less acidic, less caffeine and also friendly to sensitive stomach.

5. Norwegian Egg Coffee

To most people, it is quite unusual to brew coffee with an egg in it. However, this is a traditional Norwegian method for making coffee.

How to make it? First, you have to break a single egg and mix the egg with a half a cup of water (about 120 ml) in a slow heated saucepan. Then, add a cup of ground coffee with six cups of boiling water (about 1.5 liter) and leave it to boil in slow heat for about 3-4 minutes. After that, add a half cup of very cold water and let it steep for another 9 minutes before serving.

I bet you would expect a coffee with a mixture of egg floating in it. What's unusual about this coffee is that, you will get a rich, clear coffee. This is due to the fact that the egg protein binds with the ground coffee and it settles the grounds, providing the coffee with the richness in its taste. This is when a half cup of very cold water is added suddenly to the mixture.

Note that there are many variations in making the Norwegian Egg Coffee. Some people may even use the egg together with the shell (broken up). In this case, the coffee must be carefully strained to remove pieces of egg shell. Some people may use only the egg whites. In any cases, whichever method you use, the result will still be the same, i.e. clear and rich coffee.