Civet Coffee

We recently received this correspondence from our friend coffee expert Jacques Op De Laak.

 THAI KOPI LUWAK OR CIVET COFFEE

Kopi Luak (pronounced Kopi Luwak) or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive system of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets. The civets eat the fully ripened and best quality berries, but the beans and parchment inside pass through their system undigested. Due to their relative scarcity of the beans and very special taste of the roasted coffee these beans are highly sought after and prized on the world coffee market.

I was invited by Carina zur Strassen early this year to view an existing Arabica coffee plantation (of her Suan Lahu project) near the Lahu village of Doi Mot in Chiang Rai province and after evaluating the coffee trees the plantation owner showed us some droppings, mostly consisting of parchment coffee, presumed to be of a wild civet-like animal resident in a nearby forest. I immediately recognised the droppings as being identical to the ones shown to me on a large coffee farm while visiting Eastern Java in 2008. The farm manager told me those droppings were called kopi luwak. Obviously, what we were confronted with at Suan Lahu was a Thai version of this civet coffee.

Upon tasting the roasted and ground end product of these beans later on and we were pleasantly surprised by the unique taste of the brew. Civet coffee proved to possess a soft, mild, slightly sweet taste with a tinge of caramel, full-bodied and low in acidity. It tasted better than coffee from conventionally picked beans.

I would like to recommend this Thai civet coffee to any coffee aficionado and I wish the Suan Lahu project the best of luck in promoting this coffee worldwide to the benefit of the villagers and the project.

Jacques Op de Laak

International Coffee Consultant

Pawi (civet) coffee collected the day Jacques Op de Laak visited

Organic Matters, Bees, & Ritual Ceremonies

March 2009

Focus: Organic Fertilization

March 2009
Focus: Organic Fertilization
Our focus this month was the purchase and application of appropriate material for fertilizing the plantation, which is of course an organism living by its own rules. Having wrapped up the coffee harvest in February, and used up the remaining amount of composted cow dung we decided to further apply to Suan Lahu plants as much diverse organic matter as possible, thus adding a variety of other resources, as well. These resources mainly consisted of a large quantity of reused rice husk we bought as waste matter from a lowlander?s mushroom production. In addition we added over two tons of a mixed compost recipe which was prepared by an ISAC farmer group from the organic farmers association in northern Thailand. After adding this prepared Bocachi compost we applied smaller amounts of the pulp gained from de-hulling the coffee cherries. Thanks go to Mr. Klaus Bettenhausen, who provided us with a gift for the uppermost layer of our fertilization program, namely the composted bat dung he brought from a neighboring province.

While focusing on the diverse tasks of farming, we also decided this month to also make a contribution to cultural preservation. This decision was actually postponed since busy January, when the colorful Lahu New Year festival (called Khoja-loe) took place amidst a heavy work load. This time?s cultural contribution entailed a similar merit-making ceremony to that of the Khoja festival in that it also constituted a festive moment of reunion, including the sacred dance and prayers which the local village priest facilitated for everyone. However, it was inspired by a natural occurrence that reaffirmed our concept of organic coexistence with all living members of our highland habitat. In this case what appeared was that a large hive of wild but harmless bees in the bathroom of the farm house - an auspicious event indeed.

Activity Update:
This month we continued researching ways to improve our production and processing quality, thus further seeking expertise on organic highland agriculture, and purchasing books and manuals to achieve this aim. We bought sixty avocado seedlings that will eventually give more shade to our Arabica plants and bear a nutritious and highly priced fruit. Right now, these seedlings are recovering in the constant breeze that swifts through the orchard, and will be planted later in the rainy season.

Our cultural activity to give merit to the wild bees needs some further explanation. According to the Lahu Sheleh, and in fact also the Thai farmers in the vicinity, the bees? choice to settle in or outside a house is an auspicious sign. Lahu people not only talk to insects but also make ritual ceremonies to honor some of them, such as termites and bees. Since bees provide them with wax, of which women make candles, and with highly nutritious honey, good luck is attributed to hosts of a wild bee hive, as well as to their animals and plants, their house and enterprise. The cultural paradigm foresees this bliss to be shared with others, which we did by conducting the above mentioned ritual called Buti-loe. In the picture below is the gelupa, the Lahu priest who performed the ritual.

A Hotel for Worms

Focus: The Earthworm Bin

Focus: The Earthworm Bin

This months highlight is what we call the earthworm hotel, namely an enclosed place where earthworms feed and reproduce, thereby producing both dry and liquid compost matter for the plantation. Having received most valuable inputs from various coffee experts generously enriching our knowledge base we decided to work harder on finding appropriate fertilization matter for both the soil and the plants at Suan Lahu, while focusing on those items that could be more easily integrated into our further production and processing activities. As a result of our evaluation, we proceeded to build the worm bin where raw and wet but not spicy organic matter is deposited every couple of days. Thanks go to Ajarn Tanat (from Mae Jo University) and to Ajarn Patchanee (from Chiang Mai University) for providing us with the first earthworm generation to inhabit the Suan Lahu worm bin, and also with an extensive information on how to breed these beneficial creatures.

The worm bin, which was constructed according to our teachers' advice and publications, has a slightly inclined concrete floor from where residual liquid is drained into a gallon jug placed at a lower level. Enclosed by a black netting, and shaded by a palm leaf roof, it contains a soil & cow dung bedding that is protected (also with a net) from uninvited predators. Food for the worms is concentrated on one side of this space, namely the feeding section we call the bank, and which is separated from the remaining area, the worms' playground. Even though this breeding station is in a provisional state we expect our worm population to increase so that it may soon have to be moved to a larger space. For the time being we offer the demonstration model to students interested in organic farming.

Update:

After establishing the worm hotel and coining the above terms of endearment we began expanding the drying space for our Arabica parchment, which apparently needs to be quite spread out if moisture levels are to be controlled. While most of the old drying racks were repaired and ten more racks were built, we are thinking of moving the whole drying station in order to improve the plantation's accessibility. February also saw us systematizing our marketing approach. We commenced a test series in which different amounts of coffee beans and different processes were calculated for both wholesale and retail prices. This comparative analysis should establish the weight losses that cherries, parchment, and beans undergo in processing, and put them in relation to the increased value we can expect from processing and roasting our coffee beans.

Besides making strategic adjustments and plans for the future we also started working on a website to present our project to the world. Of course, we'd love to provide the reader/viewer of our website with a genuine glimpse of Suan Lahu's natural and cultural peculiarities, but amidst our lack of respective skills we have encountered difficulties when wanting to add sounds and pictures to the text. While an early launch of the complete Suan Lahu Website seems rather improbable at this stage we will continue gathering and editing all the references to be later uploaded by someone else.

Suan Lahu Begins...

January 2009
Inaugural Edition


This is the first edition of the Suan Lahu Blog, which addresses those interested in a social enterprise venture that is managed by indigenous Lahu Sheleh people from Chiang Rai province in Thailand and supported by individuals of what Lahu people call the pala, or Western, culture community. The newsletter describes items of a community-based development while focusing on the recent initiative to expand a social network that promotes cultural preservation, environmental protection, organic farming, and the fair trade of Arabica coffee. The Suan Lahu Blog is a means to spread publicity on the venture and its stakeholders.


The regular updating of activities at the plantation also aims to attract some seed money for setting up a foundation. This foundation will be dedicated to villagers contributing to the Suan Lahu project, and cover expenses arising from the intended changes. From January 2009 there will be a regular updates for friends and supporters of the community-based initiative. The blog, which is scheduled for the end of each month, contains feature articles on coffee issues, as well as photographs or drawings. Two columns provide information on Lahu arts and culture and on visits to Suan Lahu by supporters and potential co-funders of the project.
Contributors providing articles, images or internet links to Suan Lahu Blog are acknowledged as supporters of an initiative benefiting a tribal culture community that has been discriminated against, and yet resolves to establish an integrative network.


Activity Update:
Suan Lahu has calmed down since the ‘pala’ New Year 2009 has begun. The harvesting season is practically finished, and Jan. 3 saw the last batch of berries being sold (around a ton) to a local trader. The remaining beans have been washed, dried, and put in sacks to await further destination. While most villagers are preparing for their own upcoming Lahu New Year festival at the end of the month, some have stayed back at the orchard to discuss a change of direction.


Visits: Transportation for visiting supporters is arranged for by Carina zur Strassen, an anthropologist based in Chiang Mai. Home-stay facilities and jungle trekking are offered by the management team.


Civet Cat Coffee
Along with International Coffee Expert Jacques Op de Laak, we discovered that we have civet cats on the plantation! This wild animal, which looks something like a cross between cat, a dog, and a fox, picks the beans off the bushes, digests them, and then leaves the droppings, at specific places on the plantation, to which it will always return. The droppings contain coffee beans shells, called parchment, which once hulled still look like regular coffee beans but, according to Jacques, taste much better, and therefore have a much higher price. In the photo Jacques, Jakhadte, and others are inspecting and collecting these droppings for processing.