Mikkeller BGB Weasel - Not Buying It

Last night, I tweeted:

. @MikkellerBeer Just realised BGB uses Kopi Luwak coffee — please consider using beans that don’t involve animal cruelty cc @sweetmarias

To expand on this a bit, the blurb on the bottle label says:

This imperial Oatmeal stout is brewed with one of the world’s most expensive coffees, made from droppings of weasel-like civetcats. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries.Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. Workers collect the bean-containing droppings for Civet or Weasel Coffee. The exceedingly rare Civet Coffee has a strong taste and an even stronger aroma.

Sadly, this mythology of civets roaming the coffee plantations and using their discerning palates to pick the cream of the crop is pretty far from the actual reality of the kopi luwak industry in Southeast Asia. Here’s the reality:

That photo is from this post on sweetmarias forum, where the coffee geeks lay it out.

The root of the problem is that the demand for the exotic beans, now that it’s a “thing” first world people are willing to pay big money for, has created a moral hazard for people in a position to produce it. The result is an industry based on exploitation and perpetuated by ignorance.

Don’t buy it, don’t support it, do what you can to fight it.