Legendee: The Legend of the Weasel

One of the world's most famous coffees, the Legendee is a unique enzymatically-treated coffee that releases flavours often bound in the beans and not released under ordinary processing.

The "Legend" has to do with stories about natives who drank a brew from washed coffee beans that had been partly digested by small furry animals that do not really have a counterpart in the Western world (a civet more than a "weasel"). The "real" civet coffee (called Kopi Luwak in Indonesia) is incredibly rich, mellow and chocolaty. This obviously low-volume, expensive coffee encouraged experiments by Trung Nguyen that were performed by a staff of European scientists who eventually found natural enzymes that duplicate this process and leaves the weasels (civets) to blissfully go their own way.

Trung Nguyen was the original pioneer of this process and it has not been duplicated by any other coffee maker. The process produces a coffee unlike any other in the world, with a wide range of rich flavours and virtually no bitterness.

When iced, it releases a flavour explosion that makes it, in many people's opinion, the world's best iced coffee. You will never look at a cup of donut shop iced coffee or Charbucks the same way again. Tourists to Vietnam often do not consider their visit complete until they have sat in a Trung Nguyen coffeehouse and tried the Legendee brewed by the single-cup filters.

Over the years, consumers of both Kopi Luwak coffees and Legendee, both Classic and new Gold, have consistently told us that Legendee achieves many of the same characteristics of true Kopi Luwak. Legendee is easily 100X more popular as a Kopi Luwak equivalent than any other brand's attempt to duplicate the process of Kopi Luwak. The reason is simple, it is the only process using research by a team of German scientists contracted by Trung Nguyen in 1996 to study the effect of the Civet on coffee and duplicate a natural enzyme soak process that would approximate the same effect. All other Kopi Luwak simlations rely on choosing beans with specific profiles and artificial or natural flavorings to attempt to duplicate Kopi Luwak.

The Legendee Gold is closest in profile to Kopi Luwak from Civets fed on an all-Arabica diet. The Classic Legendee is intended to match the profile of Kopi Luwak created from civets fed on multiple species of coffees, which usually include Arabica, Excelsa and Robusta. Thus, the Classic Legendee is a darker and bolder Kopi Luwak equivalent.