Exotic Coffee: Kona Coffee, Blue Mountain Coffee, and Kopi Luwak

Thanks to particular combinations of geography or growing conditions, certain coffees become rarities. Sought after for both their scarcity and their incomparable flavors, such exotic coffee beans enjoy a mystique as the most expensive coffee beans in the world. While many different rare coffee beans exist, three kinds in particular are discussed most often and offer coffee lovers an introduction to coffee connoisseurship at its most refined.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Grown on the slopes of Blue Mountain north of Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee enjoys a reputation as one of the world's finest coffees. Blue Mountain coffee beans produce a cup of coffee that has full body and a rich, mellow aroma and flavor, balanced by light hints of acidity. Making the coffee even more rare is its popularity in Japan, where a large portion of the annual crop goes.

Many imitators offer what may be called "Blue Mountain coffee" but isn't, having been grown elsewhere in Jamaica or even outside the country. The Jamaican government strictly certifies its Blue Mountain coffee, so make sure to buy only from a reputable dealer that offers certified 100 percent Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Prices for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans can run as much as twice that of most gourmet coffee beans.

Hawaiian Kona Coffee

Coffee beans grown in the volcanic soil on the slopes of Mauna Loa on the Hawaiian island of Kona deliver a cup of coffee that is full-bodied, rich in aroma and flavor, with tantalizing hints of sweetness and spice in every sip. Many travelers to the islands are first introduced to Kona coffee there. They'll bring home a bag of Kona coffee beans, and continue to yearn for it.

Since land is limited in a tropical paradise devoted to tourism and also suited to growing other profitable crops, production of Kona coffee beans is scarce. Prices for Kona coffee beans can run from 50 percent to 100 percent more than the average price of most gourmet coffee beans.

Kopi Luwak

Literally translated from the Indonesian as "luwak coffee" or "civet coffee," kopi luwak may be the world's rarest coffee, and a truly rarified or bizarre coffee drinking experience. The luwak, a small marsupial animal related to a civet, loves to eat whole ripe coffee cherries from coffee trees in the coffee plantations on the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. The luwak's digestive juices have a unique effect upon the hard seeds of the coffee cherry, the coffee beans, which pass whole through the animal's digestive tract. When carefully picked from the luwak's droppings, thoroughly washed, dried, and then roasted, the coffee tastes remarkably rich, full-bodied, earthy, and sweet.

Of course, the need to hand pick and wash kopi luwak, and the relatively limited number of coffee cherries that the animals eat out of a total crop, make kopi luwak coffee beans a true rarity. These exotic coffee beans can sell for as much as ten times the cost of most gourmet coffee beans.