Most expensive Black Ivory Coffee made from elephant dung

We have probably all come across a situation when the coffee we ordered at a cafe made us say “this tastes like sh**t”, right? Well, that phrase actually contains some truth in it, and the information to follow could be a little unsettling for all those coffee lovers out there. Because the world’s most expensive coffee, which is priced at $70 per serving, is made from elephant poo!

Black Ivory Coffee, produced in Thailand’s Golden Triangle, a region better known for its export of opium, is made by having elephants eat the coffee beans which are mixed into a fruit mash.

Over the course of three days the coffee beans pass through the elephants’ digestive system; they are then picked out of its dung before being washed, dried and roasted. According to founder Blake Dinkin, a 44-year-old entrepreneur from Canada, 33lbs of coffee beans make just 1lbs of coffee.

So what makes elephant poo coffee so special?

‘[Elephants] eat a lot of grass and a lot of green, leafy matter,’ Mr Dinkin

‘A herbivore, to break that down, utilises fermentation to break down that cellulose. Fermentation is great for things like wine or beer or coffee, because it brings out the sugar in the bean, and it helps impart the fruit from the coffee pulp into the bean.’

Fermentation helps to remove the bitterness of coffee, according to Mr Dinkin, who explained that no sugar is needed to sweeten his brew.

‘I want people to taste the bean, not just the roast,’ he said. ‘The aroma is floral and chocolate; the taste is chocolate malt with a bit of cherry; there’s no bitterness; and it’s very soft, like tea. So it’s kind of like a cross between coffee and tea.’

Mr Dinkin sources Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand near the border with Myanmar. which adds to the coffee’s nutty flavour.

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