Kopi Luwak Arabica, Medium Roast

Blind Assessment: The aroma is sweet and soft with surprising and agreeable floral and fresh orange notes that carry into a heavy, sweet, lushly floral-toned cup. An odd note in both aroma and cup that for me suggested raw, unroasted nuts dampened my enthusiasm for this otherwise distinctive and impressive coffee. This background note struck me as cloying and on the edge of unpleasant, but if you like it then you will no doubt like this coffee, because the dominating floral and orange notes are both unusual and attractive.

Notes: A version of the famous (or infamous) Kopi Luwak, the world's most expensive coffee. The beans are harvested from the feces of a species of civet cat resident in Sumatra that eats ripe coffee fruit. Luwak Coffee is an Internet retailer and wholesaler that specializes in kopi luwak and other rare Indonesian coffees. Visit www.luwakcoffee.com for more information.

Who Should Drink It: Experimentalists with spare cash, obviously. Judging by our sampling of various versions of kopi luwak available retail in late 2007, the cup character of these coffees varies, perhaps by tree and by luwak, but most do express an interesting and unusual sensory profile, however the details of that profile may vary.