Bali Coffee Plantation Tours: Luwak Coffee Ethics + Best Spots

Bali grows some of the most interesting coffee in the world. The volcanic soil, tropical climate, and altitude of the island’s central highlands create ideal growing conditions for both Arabica and Robusta beans. Add in a deeply rooted coffee culture — Balinese people have been growing and drinking coffee for over a century — and you have a genuinely compelling reason to visit a plantation.

But let us address the elephant (or rather, the civet cat) in the room right away. Most people come to a Bali coffee plantation because they have heard about Kopi Luwak — the coffee made from beans that have been eaten, partially digested, and excreted by the Asian palm civet. It is marketed as the most expensive coffee in the world, and it comes with serious ethical questions that every visitor should understand before they buy.

This guide covers both: the beautiful world of Balinese coffee and the complicated reality of Luwak coffee.

What Happens on a Coffee Plantation Tour

A typical plantation tour lasts 1-3 hours and follows a fairly standard format, though the quality of the experience varies enormously between plantations.

The Plantation Walk

Your guide walks you through the growing area, pointing out different plants and explaining the process from seed to cup. You will see:

Coffee plants: Bali grows both Arabica (higher altitude, more nuanced flavor) and Robusta (lower altitude, stronger, more caffeine). The plants are surprisingly small — more like bushes than trees. Red and green cherries hang in clusters, and your guide will likely pick one for you to taste the sweet fruit surrounding the bean.
Other crops: Most Balinese coffee plantations are not monocultures. You will also see cacao (chocolate), vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, lemongrass, and various tropical fruits growing alongside the coffee. This intercropping is both traditional and ecologically sound.
Processing areas: Where the cherries are pulped, washed or naturally dried, and the beans are sorted and roasted. The smell in the roasting area is extraordinary.
Civet cats (at some plantations): Depending on the plantation, you may see Asian palm civets — the small, cat-like animals involved in Luwak coffee production. More on this below.

The Tasting

The highlight for most visitors. You sit at a table overlooking the plantation or the surrounding volcano views and are presented with a selection of 8-15 small cups of different coffees and teas.

Typical tasting selections include:

Pure Bali Arabica — clean, smooth, with notes of chocolate and citrus
Bali Robusta — bolder, earthier, higher caffeine
Coconut coffee — coffee blended with coconut, slightly sweet and creamy
Ginger coffee — warming and spicy, a traditional Balinese preparation
Ginseng coffee — coffee with ginseng root, said to boost energy
Vanilla coffee — smooth and aromatic
Mangosteen coffee — fruity and unusual
Various herbal teas — lemongrass, rosella (hibiscus), turmeric

The non-Luwak tastings are typically free. A cup of Luwak coffee is offered separately at an additional cost, usually 50,000-80,000 IDR ($3-5).

The Shop

After the tasting, you are walked through a shop selling packaged versions of everything you just tasted. Prices are higher than in supermarkets but lower than at the airport. This is where plantations make their money, and you should not feel pressured to buy — though the fresh-roasted Bali Arabica genuinely makes an excellent gift or souvenir.

The Truth About Luwak Coffee

What Is It?

Kopi Luwak is made from coffee beans that have been eaten by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), a small nocturnal mammal native to Southeast Asia. The civet eats the ripest coffee cherries, digests the fruit, and excretes the beans. The beans are then collected, cleaned, and roasted.

The theory is that the civet’s digestive enzymes alter the bean’s protein structure, reducing bitterness and producing a smoother, less acidic cup of coffee. It was originally discovered when plantation workers in colonial-era Indonesia found that collecting beans from civet droppings produced a different (and to some palates, superior) coffee.

The Ethics Problem

Here is where it gets complicated, and where honesty matters more than marketing.

Wild-sourced Luwak coffee — collected from the droppings of free-roaming civets in the forest — is ethical. The animals eat what they want, live their natural lives, and the beans are simply gathered from the forest floor. The problem is that genuine wild-sourced Luwak coffee is extremely rare and labor-intensive to collect.

Caged Luwak coffee — which is the majority of what you will encounter in Bali — is a different story entirely. Civets are kept in small cages, often in poor conditions, and fed coffee cherries as their primary diet. These are nocturnal, solitary animals being kept in daylight, in close proximity to other animals, with limited space to move. Studies have documented stress behaviors in caged civets including pacing, self-harm, and abnormal activity patterns.

The demand from tourism has created a financial incentive to keep civets in captivity. Many plantations that advertise “wild” Luwak coffee are actually using caged animals, and there is no reliable certification system to verify wild-sourcing claims.

How to Navigate This as a Visitor

You have several options:

Skip the Luwak coffee entirely. The regular Balinese coffee is excellent. You lose nothing by skipping the Luwak tasting. This is the simplest ethical choice.
Ask pointed questions. If a plantation shows you civets in cages, you are looking at caged production regardless of what they tell you. Genuinely wild-sourced operations do not keep civets on display because the whole point is that the animals are in the forest.
Look at the conditions. If you see civets in small wire cages, exposed to daylight, with dirty enclosures, or in obvious distress — you are seeing animal exploitation for tourism. Do not reward it with your money.
Focus on plantations that do not emphasize Luwak. The best plantations are the ones that are genuinely proud of their conventional coffee and treat Luwak as a footnote rather than the main attraction. These tend to be the operations with higher agricultural standards and better ethics.

Does Luwak Coffee Actually Taste Better?

Professional coffee tasters are divided. Blind tastings have produced mixed results — some detect the reduced acidity and additional smoothness, others find little difference or actually prefer conventional high-quality Arabica. The Specialty Coffee Association has stated that Luwak coffee’s high price is driven by novelty and scarcity rather than objectively superior flavor.

The honest answer: a well-grown, properly roasted Bali Arabica from a reputable plantation will give you a more enjoyable cup than most Luwak coffee, at a fraction of the price and with zero ethical concerns.

Best Coffee Plantations to Visit

Kintamani Highlands (Near Mount Batur)

The Kintamani area, at elevations of 900-1,200 meters, produces Bali’s best Arabica coffee. The volcanic soil, cool temperatures, and regular mist create conditions that slow the bean’s growth and concentrate its flavors.

What makes it special: The views alone are worth the visit. Most plantations in this area overlook the Mount Batur caldera and lake. Sipping fresh coffee while looking at the volcano you might have just trekked (Mount Batur sunrise trek) is a peak Bali moment.

Best combined with: Post-Batur trek recovery, hot springs at Lake Batur, or on the drive between Ubud and Lovina.

Munduk Highlands (Central-North Bali)

Munduk sits at about 800-1,000 meters in the lush highlands between the north coast and the central mountains. Coffee here grows alongside clove, cacao, and vanilla in a cooler, misty climate.

What makes it special: Munduk feels remote and undeveloped compared to Kintamani. The plantations here tend to be smaller, family-run operations where the same family has been growing coffee for generations. The surrounding waterfalls (Munduk, Melanting, Golden Valley) make it an excellent half-day excursion.

Best combined with: Waterfall tours, scenic drives, overnight stays in the highlands.

Ubud Area

Several plantations operate in the hills around Ubud, typically at lower elevations than Kintamani. The coffee is predominantly Robusta, which thrives in warmer, lower-altitude conditions.

What makes it special: Convenience. These plantations are easy to visit as part of an Ubud day — combine with the Tegallalang Rice Terraces, a swing experience, or a cooking class.

Best combined with: Rice terraces, Ubud cultural sites, waterfall visits.

Tabanan Area

The slopes of Mount Batukaru in Tabanan are home to Bali’s most traditional agricultural communities. Coffee plantations here often operate as part of the subak irrigation system — the traditional Balinese water management cooperatives recognized by UNESCO.

What makes it special: You see coffee production as part of a broader, centuries-old agricultural system rather than a tourist-facing operation. The Jatiluwih Rice Terraces (UNESCO World Heritage Site) are nearby.

Best combined with: Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, cycling tours, West Bali exploration.

What to Look for in a Good Plantation

Not all plantations offer the same quality of experience. Here is how to distinguish the great ones from the tourist traps:

Signs of a Good Plantation

They grow their own coffee. Some “plantations” are just tasting rooms with bought-in coffee. A genuine plantation will have actual growing plants, processing equipment, and roasting facilities.
The guide is knowledgeable. They can explain growing conditions, processing methods, and the differences between varieties with genuine expertise, not just a memorized script.
The tasting is generous and unpressured. Good plantations let you taste freely and do not aggressively push sales afterward.
They are proud of their conventional coffee. The best operations lead with their Arabica and Robusta, not with Luwak coffee.
Clean, well-maintained grounds. This reflects the care they put into everything.

Red Flags

Civets in small, dirty cages prominently displayed at the entrance — this is Luwak coffee tourism at its worst.
Aggressive sales tactics after the tasting. If you feel pressured, leave.
No actual growing plants visible — you are at a gift shop, not a plantation.
Prices dramatically higher than market rate. A 100-gram bag of good Bali Arabica should cost 30,000-80,000 IDR ($2-5), not $20.
Claims of “100% wild Luwak” while showing you caged civets.

Beyond Coffee: What Else Grows on Bali’s Plantations

Most plantation tours introduce you to the broader agricultural richness of the island:

Cacao (Chocolate)

Bali grows excellent cacao, and several chocolate makers on the island produce bean-to-bar chocolate that rivals anything from Europe or South America. Some plantations offer chocolate tastings alongside coffee. The cacao fruit itself is worth trying — the white pulp around the beans is sweet and tangy.

Vanilla

Bali produces some of the world’s finest vanilla. On the plantation walk, your guide will show you the orchid vines that produce the pods and explain the hand-pollination process (each flower must be pollinated by hand because the natural pollinator does not exist in Bali). Vanilla beans make an excellent souvenir — far cheaper here than at home.

Spices

Cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and lemongrass all grow abundantly in Bali’s highlands. The guide will crush leaves for you to smell and taste, and the fragrance of a spice garden in the tropics is one of those small sensory memories that stays with you.

Practical Information

Cost

Plantation tour with tasting: Free to 50,000 IDR ($0-3) — many plantations do not charge admission because they make money from the shop
Luwak coffee cup: 50,000-80,000 IDR ($3-5) for a single cup
With transport from Ubud: $20-30 per person when booked as part of a day tour
Packaged coffee to take home: 30,000-100,000 IDR ($2-6) per 100-gram bag

How Long to Budget

Allow 1-2 hours for a plantation visit including the tour and tasting. If you are genuinely interested in the agricultural process, 2 hours is better. If you are fitting it in between other activities, an hour is enough for a walk and a tasting.

What to Bring

Cash for purchases and tips (many plantation shops do not take cards)
An empty stomach for the tasting — you will drink a lot of coffee and tea
A light jacket if visiting highlands plantations — temperatures at 1,000+ meters are noticeably cooler
Space in your luggage for coffee beans to bring home. Sealed bags usually make it through customs without issue, but check your home country’s import rules.

Best Time to Visit

Coffee plantations are a year-round activity, but there is a seasonal rhythm:

Harvesting season (May to August): You can see the cherries being picked and processed. This is the most interesting time to visit from an agricultural perspective.
Flowering season (September to November): The coffee plants are covered in fragrant white flowers.
Any time: The tasting rooms and processing facilities operate year-round regardless of harvest.

A Note on Buying Coffee in Bali

If you fall in love with Balinese coffee (and you probably will), here are some buying tips:

Buy from the plantation where you tasted it, if the prices are fair. You know exactly what you are getting.
Supermarkets carry local brands (Bali Kopi, Kupu-Kupu Bola Dunia) at lower prices. The quality is good for everyday drinking.
Specialty roasters in Ubud and Canggu offer single-origin Bali beans roasted to a high standard. Seniman Coffee in Ubud is worth seeking out.
Avoid airport coffee shops — prices are marked up 3-5 times.
Whole beans last longer than pre-ground. If you have a grinder at home, buy whole beans.

Book a Coffee Plantation Tour with Gede

Gede knows the plantations that are genuinely worth your time — the ones with passionate growers, honest practices, beautiful settings, and excellent coffee. He will take you to a plantation that matches your interests, whether that is a deep agricultural experience in the Kintamani highlands or a quick tasting stop between other activities.

He will also tell you straight up which plantations to avoid — the ones that are all gift shop and no substance, and the ones where the civet situation is not right.

Book your coffee plantation tour →