<P> In the coffee industry, kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or novelty item . The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) states that there is a "general consensus within the industry...it just tastes bad". A coffee professional cited in the SCAA article was able to compare the same beans with and without the kopi luwak process using a rigorous coffee cupping evaluation . He concluded: "it was apparent that Luwak coffee sold for the story, not superior quality...Using the SCAA cupping scale, the Luwak scored two points below the lowest of the other three coffees . It would appear that the Luwak processing diminishes good acidity and flavor and adds smoothness to the body, which is what many people seem to note as a positive to the coffee ." </P> <P> Tim Carman, food writer for the Washington Post reviewed kopi luwak available to US consumers and concluded "It tasted just like...Folgers . Stale . Lifeless . Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water . I couldn't finish it ." </P> <P> Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste . Massimo Marcone, who performed extensive chemical tests on the beans, was unable to conclude if anything about their properties made them superior for purposes of making coffee . He employed several professional coffee tasters (called "cuppers") in a blind taste test . While the cuppers were able to distinguish the kopi luwak as distinct from the other samples, they had nothing remarkable to appraise about it other than it was less acidic and had less body, tasting "thin". Marcone remarked "It's not that people are after that distinct flavor . They are after the rarity of the coffee". </P> <P> Several commercial processes attempt to replicate the digestive process of the civets without animal involvement . </P>

Where does the most expensive coffee come from