Strange stuff. I would be afraid to try kopi luwak in case it's really that good. Freshly ground French roast is ok for me and that's about 100 times better than my father settled for in his day.
This new version of coffee is fed to elephants in Thailand. But it lacks the discriminating taste of the civat cat. The idea is that the civats only eat the best coffee berries. Apparently, the reason they are trying the elephant thing, is because it is much easier to mass produce if proven to be popular. But the elephant probably just eats what ever it's given, so doubtful the coffee would be as good as the civet version.
If you take into account the cost of the hotel room to get the cup of coffee, it's by far the most expensive cup of coffee in the world. But most people who spend over $3K a night, will think nothing of $50 for an exceptional cup of coffee. This is probably an introductory price though, as 5 star hotels usually mark up consumables way more than that.
Theoretically, if this experiment does work, and the coffee is really good, it should be much cheaper than the civet version. But either way, I would only buy it from a reputable retailer. I would not buy it through Amazon or Ebay. The coffee has to go through all kinds of cleaning, sterilization and roasting that has to be done properly, before it is sold.
Have you heard of this new 10K yr old bottled water from icebergs? Supposed to be the best drinking water in the world and only $15.00 for a 12 ounce bottle. Haven't been able to find a retailer yet, though. But one of the cable channels has a realty show about former fishermen harvesting pieces of icebergs. These fishermen are selling the ice for around $4/lb from what I can gather from the show.
So far the harvesting method on the tv show is hillarious. They shoot at the iceberg with high powered rifles until a piece falls off and then try to scoop up the ice with nets. There definitely has to be a better way than that.
The latest thing is a cup of civet coffee made with iceberg water. That's got to be at least 100 dollars a cup USD. And only served at the most expensive hotels in the world