Civet coffee, like honey, is the result of something being eaten and excreted by a non-kosher animal. While any direct product of a non-kosher animal -- like milk -- is not kosher, there might be a different reasoning for something that passed through a non-kosher animal rather than being made by it. (I haven't researched honey specifically, though it's mentioned in passing in the source linked here for civet coffee.)

Din Online, a reputable source, writes about civet coffee and raises the following factors:

• The rule of "yotzei min hatamei", literally "what comes out of an impure species". This is the rule that forbids, for example, mare's milk.

• The rule of "pirsha b’alma", that something is excreted by an animal but not made by an animal like milk or eggs are.

• The rule of "ba’al tshaktzu", which comes from Leviticus 11:43: "You shall not make yourselves abominable with anything that swarms". The Orthodox Union explains that this is broader than just not eating bugs but also prohibits eating anything disgusting, like food that was contaminated with feces.

Din Online (drawing on Shulchan Aruch and Maimonides, among others^[1]) concludes that it's controversial but most rabbis say it's not yotzei min hatamei because the beans came from outside the animal (pirsha b’alma). (See the link for more details of this reasoning.) Having raised ba'al tzhaktzu in passing, the response does not specifically address that aspect. I would expect the same concern to apply to honey and Din Online brings up honey for the other concern, but this is my interpretation of something they did not spell out.

There are additional factors that affect kashrut of (any) food that are unrelated to the source of the beans. Din Online argues that civet coffee can be kosher; it's not categorically forbidden. You would still want to check that any particular civet coffee has a kosher certification.

posted 11 months ago

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11mo ago

Monica Cellio‭ staff

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