You can get a taste of it in Santa Monica for about 75 bucks, but if you want to buy a pound of the “beans” from which it is brewed you will pay around $3,000. It is called Kopi Luwak and is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. But, is it worth it? 

Many customers might be appalled if they knew a little more about this prized drink.  Instead of being made from traditionally harvested coffee beans – picked right off coffee plants – the beans are harvested from the droppings of a civet that lives in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. The civets eat coffee berries, digests the outer pulp and then pass the beans in their feces. The feces have been described to look something like a PayDay candy bar.

According to one source, “enzymes and other chemicals in the animal’s digestive tract react with the protein in the beans, eliminating much of the bitterness present in most coffees and creating a highly appealing flavor, despite how it came to pass.” The feces are dried, thoroughly cleaned, and then roasted, before being packaged for market.

No thank you. It may be the rave, but it’s not for me. Kris Kolbu warns, “The problems with Kopi Luwak today are serious for so many reasons, it’s a miracle there is still a market for it. First of all, more than 80% of all coffee sold as Kopi Luwak today is fake. It hasn’t even been near a civet cat, much less through one. Should you, however, manage to get your hands on the real deal, you’ll be drinking what amounts to nothing short of liquid suffering.” (nordiccoffeeculture.com)

The point is that sometimes we pay much more than something is worth:

• We speak our mind and it costs us a relationship.
• We engage in a reckless romance and it costs us our marriage.
• We throw caution to the wind, get drunk and our behavior hurts or kills someone.
• We cheat today and pay dearly tomorrow.

Jewish Wisdom Literature puts it this way: Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. (Proverbs 2:11-12 NLT)

Wise people make the extra effort to look a little more closely at what all is involved. Discriminating choice is a powerful thing. When someone has the confidence and poise to pass by things that are too expensive, unethical, or shady, even if they are faddish, politically correct, or temporarily improve social standing, their choices can be life-changing. Sometimes the choice that brings the best value is the choice to pass up something expensive – something that has been over-valued. Very often the most popular and coveted things – the things everyone is raving about – are just not worth it!