# Is There A Way To Guarantee That I'm Buying Genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee or Kopi Luwak **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627 "2017-04-03T01:20:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/1 "2017-04-03T01:20:55Z")
I’ve read that much of what is advertised as Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee or Kopi Luwak Coffee is falsely advertised as such. Is there an outside agency that guarantees coffee authenticity, so I can check for their symbol or something? ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/2 "2017-04-04T19:13:41Z")
I think its the same guarantee you could get when you went to a port in Mexico and bought a Cuban cigar. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/3 "2017-04-04T19:23:20Z")
I have the exact same question (but add Kona to the list). I think the only way is to buy from an established coffee roaster. For example I’m investigating [Blue Mountain Coffee](http://www.bluemountaincoffee.com) to see if they are on the up and up. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/4 "2017-04-06T15:35:45Z")
Looks like fraud, and animal cruelty, is not uncommon with kopi luwak coffee: [Kopi luwak - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak) ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/5 "2017-04-06T16:12:03Z")
You could quite easily keep a couple of civets in a nice animal house in the garden, feed them the coffee cherries, and each morning scoop up a brown paper bag of their poop and take it into work for the coffee machine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/6 "2017-04-07T06:40:54Z")
If you can’t tell the difference yourself, what’s the point? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/7 "2017-04-07T08:34:29Z")
Technically, there have been advancements in Investigation in past decades. Experts (with an expensive lab) can now take foodstuff, or animals who have eaten that, and link trace Mineral amounts to specific regions - if they have a detailed geological map of that Region. It’s interesting to do spot searches of how much % of a certain Food claimed to be from Region X is actually from elsewhere. It can also sometimes be used for unknown dead bodies, to at least get an idea of the Region they were last at. But it’s not a test (yet?) you can buy for 5$ and do yourself. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/8 "2017-04-07T13:48:57Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > If you can’t tell the difference yourself, what’s the point? This. A triumph of marketing over common sense and judgement. Like the people who pay £thousands for a bottle of wine, when they can’t really tell it from vin ordinaire. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/9 "2017-04-07T14:42:21Z")
Kopi luwak? A little less acidic, a little less body(tastes weak to me) and the quality varies widely due to the fact that(even it is legitimate) you are probably getting farmed coffee. The problem is that they have to eat what is fed to them in bulk instead of eating the choice food they would pick out themselves in the wild-Garbage In, Garbage Out. It’s elephantine cousin, Black Ivory, has a _bit_ more body…but it is even more expensive due to the fact that fewer of the cherries survive the digestive tract of elephants. As has been said, the only reason for the price is the rarity. If someone managed to drag those beans through the digestive tracts of elephants _then_ through the digestive tracts of civets, there are pretentious idiots that would pay $250 a cup, take a sip and faint from joy. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/10 "2017-04-07T16:34:36Z")
The several times I’ve had Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee I’ve purchased it in Jamaica, or received it as a gift from someone who purchased it in Jamaica. ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/11 "2017-04-10T19:05:57Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > If you can’t tell the difference yourself, what’s the point? That’s silly. The point would be to avoid having to buy dozens of bags of possibly counterfeit Blue Mountain coffee to personally taste test them all. I used to buy Kona coffee directly from a grower in Hawaii. The price wasn’t terrible, and I was pretty sure it was genuine. **HeyHomie** , perhaps you could do the same for Jamaican Blue Mountain. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-guarantee-that-im-buying-genuine-jamaican-blue-mountain-coffee-or-kopi-luwak/783627/12 "2017-04-11T13:08:02Z")
> [@Kyrie\_Eleison](#): > > I used to buy Kona coffee directly from a grower in Hawaii. The price wasn’t terrible, and I was pretty sure it was genuine. **HeyHomie** , perhaps you could do the same for Jamaican Blue Mountain. Now we’re almost Close to milk powder smuggling.