The rarest coffees in the world

Today, we will dedicate a few lines to leaving our comfort zone and exploring those preparations, or those grain origins, that are out of the ordinary. Our classification of different, surprising coffees or only the most unique coffees globally can be our classification.

The classification is not necessarily ordered, nor are we limiting ourselves to one product type. We will talk about grains (origins or varieties) and coffee elaborations that surprise or are out of the ordinary. If you are looking for the most expensive coffee in the world, you will find the answer in this article.

Kopi Luwak coffee

Kopi Luwak coffee is not harvested from the coffee tree but from the faeces of civets in the wild. Civets? What is a civet? Civets are a species of raccoon (sorry, biologists) that live mainly in Indonesia and feed largely on the fruits of the coffee tree. Did we say that Kopi Luwak coffee is collected from civets’ faeces? Why?

These small mammals eat the coffee berries, barely digesting the beans and expelling them virtually intact. However, they modify the coffee beans chemically using enzymes in the animal’s stomach during digestion. As a result of this process, the proteins responsible for the original bitterness of the coffee are destroyed, which is why Kopi Luwak coffee beans have such a silky, fine aroma.

To classify it as the rarest coffee in the world is up to each individual. Still, it is considered the most expensive coffee globally, reaching $100 per kilo of coffee beans. The beans have to be harvested from the excrement of these animals, washed thoroughly, gently roasted and processed for sale.

Kopi Luwak Coffee
Kopi Luwak coffee – Civets’ faeces

Cà Phê Trúng (Vietnamese coffee)

If you don’t speak Vietnamese, the name in the title may sound unfamiliar to you, but since it is also known as Vietnamese coffee, that’s what we’ll call it from now on. How is this coffee prepared? Essentially it is a drip infused coffee, in the style of drip cones but with a few small differences and a surprising extra ingredient.

Unlike the drip cones, Vietnamese coffee is compacted a little, and a certain amount of water is added before starting the coffee infusion (this is easily achieved with Vietnamese coffee makers). This way, we get a more intense extraction and a more bitter coffee as a result.

And what is this “surprising” ingredient? Raw egg yolk! When we hear about raw food, we get a bit scared in the western world, but it is not rare in the east. To better understand how to prepare it, we leave you with this video by Steve Owens that explains it very well:

KaffeeOst (coffee with cheese)

Ost means “cheese” in Swedish and other Scandinavian languages. Kaffee means coffee, so the two words make the Nordic cheese coffee. This combination may come as a surprise in some countries.

Still, it makes sense thanks to a type of Finnish cheese called leipäjuusto. It is a very spongy cheese, which absorbs any liquid without breaking down or melting quickly.

Kaffeeost is a Swedish preparation, but it is very widespread in the rest of Scandinavia, especially in Finland. As seen in the picture, the cheese is cut into medium-sized cubes and dipped into the coffee to mix with its flavour. The cheese is eaten with a spoon, and the coffee is drunk.

This coffee will have been infused with the flavour and aromas left by the cheese when it has been inside. Is this coffee good? Again, it’s subjective, but you can’t deny it’s a very rare coffee.

KaffeeOst
KaffeeOst

The usual thing is to serve the cubes of cheese before in the cup and then serve the coffee on top boiling, but this already goes to the consumer’s taste.

Cafe Touba (with pepper and spices)

Touba is a spicy coffee from Senegal. This drink looks like a traditional coffee but is flavoured with Guinea peppercorns and other spices. The usual is a ratio of a quarter of spices for each coffee. Still, you know what usually happens in these cases: the exact recipe does not exist and allows dozens of variants and nuances.

Touba coffee is usually served with sugar, like any other coffee. Still, it is better to drink it alone to experience all its sensations better.

Yuen Yeung (Coffee Tea)

To traditionally prepare this “coffee”, we need Selong tea leaves, english breakfast tea leaves, and ground coffee as the main ingredients.

In principle, the process, although it sounds strange, is simple. Both teas are mixed in equal parts and poured into a hot pan (without water) to toast them a little, and then the water is added to infuse the tea. At the same time, we also infuse the ground coffee and mix tea and coffee in the same pot.

We serve it in cups from this pot, to which we have added a certain amount of condensed milk. It should taste like milk tea but with the aroma of coffee.

Yuen Yeung (Coffee Tea)
Yuen Yeung (Coffee Tea)

Avolatte (avocado latte)

This creation was born in Melbourne’s Truman café. It is a coffee brewed inside an avocado, without any special mixture affecting its taste beyond the container it is served in (the empty avocado shell).

The barista can do an excellent job with the latte art inside the avocado if skilled enough. Still, there is nothing special about the coffee itself beyond its presentation.

Sea salt coffee

After so many varieties of coffee so original, we missed a preparation of salted coffee, right? Well, here it is, and in its purest essence: coffee with sea salt from 85C Bakery Café (a franchise of coffee shops in Taiwan). In some countries, it will sound eccentric, but Sea Salt Coffee has been among the best-selling drinks in Taiwan for several years.

Blue coffee

We leave for the end a shocking proposal: a blue coffee. Matcha Mylkbar’s vegan coffee, a vegan-oriented and sustainable food establishment located in Melbourne (yes, Australians seem to be at the forefront of coffee originality).

It’s absurd to call a coffee “vegan” (because it’s a vegan product from its origin). Still, we already know that labels perform a powerful function of attracting and identifying customers these days.

In short, what attracts the attention of blue coffee, or Blue Latte, is logically its colour and not the fact that a vegan establishment serves it. The coffee used in this elaboration is ordinary. The milk has a blue colour and is made with seaweed powder and coconut milk (totally vegan, of course).

Blue coffee
Blue coffee