Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is one of the world’s most expensive and least-produced varieties of coffee. It is made from coffee beans that have been eaten by the Asian palm civet and other related civets and then passed through their digestive tracts. Civets are cat-like mammals.
As the beans pass through the civet’s stomach, enzymes seep into them. The beans are eventually excreted, remarkably retaining their shape. After being collected, thoroughly washed, sun-dried, lightly roasted, and brewed, these beans produce an aromatic coffee with significantly less bitterness than traditional coffee. It is certainly one of the world’s most expensive coffees, with prices reaching as high as $635 per pound.
If civet coffee seems lavish, Black Ivory coffee takes exotic pricing to an entirely new tier. Produced in Thailand, these ultra-rare Arabica beans are fermented inside the digestive tracts of rescued Asian elephants. The elephants’ natural stomach enzymes break down proteins in the beans, virtually eliminating bitterness and imparting smooth, subtle notes of chocolate and fruit.
The yields are astonishingly low because the pachyderms chew up or lose most of the coffee beans. It takes roughly 70 pounds of raw coffee cherries to produce a single pound of whole roasted beans. The beans are hand-extracted from elephant dung by local caretakers, and the resulting brew can command up to $1,500 per pound, making it one of the rarest and most expensive coffees on earth.
The question is: Are these coffees kosher?
Interestingly, for those who keep halal, the Indonesian Ulema Council has ruled that civet coffee beans are permissible as long as they are properly cleaned. But what about kashrus?
The answer to this question may be found in our Daf.
The Gemara in Bechoros (7a) raises the question of whether donkey urine is kosher. Apparently, in the times of the Gemara, people consumed it for medicinal purposes. Rav Sheshes concluded that it was not kosher.
There is a question, however, regarding urine from horses and camels. Are they likewise non-kosher?
Interestingly, a well-known drug called Premarin, which is used in hormone replacement therapy, is derived from the urine of pregnant mares. The name itself is an acronym for PREgnant MAre uRINe.
According to one version of Rav Sheshes’s ruling, horse and camel urine are treated the same way as donkey urine and are not kosher. However, according to another version, horse and camel urine undergo only minimal processing in their hosts’ digestive systems and are therefore kosher. They differ from donkey urine, which undergoes more substantive processing.
The Gemara then discusses a related subject. It is an undisputed halacha that honey from bees is kosher, even though a bee is certainly a non-kosher insect. The Gemara debates the reason for this halacha. Is it because of a special pasuk in the Torah that specifically permits bee honey, or is it because honey is not considered a true secretion of the bee?
The latter explanation would be based on the principle of “Hayotzei min ha’tamei tamei,” that a product that comes from a non-kosher creature is itself non-kosher.
However, the Gemara suggests that honey is not really a product of the bee. The bee functions primarily as a carrier and facilitator of the nectar that it sucks from plants. Since the nectar itself is kosher, the resulting honey is kosher as well.
There is a halachic difference between these two explanations. What would be the status of honey produced by other insects, such as the polistine wasp? If there is a special pasuk permitting bee honey, that heter would apply specifically to bee honey. But if the reason is that the insect merely transports and minimally processes kosher nectar, then honey produced by other insects would also be kosher.
The Rambam rules that all types of honey produced by insects are kosher. He also rules that urine from a non-kosher animal is kosher.
However, most of the other Rishonim, including the Ramban and Rosh, disagree with the Rambam. They maintain that only bee honey is kosher and that urine from non-kosher animals is not kosher. The Aruch HaShulchan notes that the rulings concerning wasp honey and horse urine are based on the same underlying reasoning.
Can we apply this discussion to civet coffee?
It is debatable whether a parallel can be drawn between coffee beans excreted by a civet and horse urine. Perhaps the coffee beans undergo more significant processing inside the civet and would therefore not be kosher even according to the Rambam. Furthermore, the Rishonim who disagree with the Rambam would seemingly rule that the beans are not kosher, since civet coffee is arguably no better than wasp honey or horse urine.
Since this involves a potential issur d’Oraisa, we would seemingly have to rule stringently that civet coffee is not kosher.
However, Rav Dovid Feinstein, zt”l, disagreed.
He reasoned that the coffee beans secreted by the civet remain whole. Although enzymes may have affected the bean, the bean itself has not changed form at all. This is halachically better than insect honey, which undergoes a change from nectar into honey.
Rav Dovid Feinstein compared this to a case discussed by Tosfos involving a kosher fish found inside a non-kosher fish. The kosher fish is virtually identical to the fish that was swallowed. It did not undergo a substantive transformation inside the non-kosher animal.
Therefore, Rav Dovid Feinstein reasoned that all of the Rishonim would agree that civet coffee is kosher.
Anecdotally, I have heard that some other rabbonim disagree. So if you have the money to spare on this coffee, ask your local rabbi for guidance.
There is an interesting additional issue with Black Ivory coffee. The coffee cherries remain in the elephant’s digestive system for a longer period of time, potentially raising the issue of kavush k’mevushal. Even a cold item that remains soaking in a non-kosher liquid for 24 hours can become non-kosher through the process of kavush.
However, some suggest that this may not be a concern in this case. See Darchei Teshuvah 83.
And finally, if the very thought of drinking civet coffee grosses you out, there may be an additional prohibition to consider: ba’al tishaktzu. One aspect of this prohibition is that a person may not eat something that repulses him.
Maggid shiur and Rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. He leads the Daf Yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, and writes “Delving into the Daf” each week for The Jewish Home.
