Elephant dung coffee becomes world's most expensive - and it boasts unlikely hints of 'milk chocolate, nuts, spice and red berries'

By Bianca London

PUBLISHED: 16:02 GMT, 19 October 2012 | UPDATED: 16:24 GMT, 19 October 2012


Coffee connoisseurs may find themselves put off their next caffeine fix after discovering the latest gimmick to hit the market.

Forget rich arabica and robusta - the new bean on the block is the rather unlikely elephant dung variety.

The elephant dung coffee is made from beans eaten and digested by elephants living on a reserve in Thailand. When animals pass the beans in their excrement, they are harvested, cleaned up and processed into coffee grinds.

The costly new coffee is made from elephant dung, the elephants digest the beans before they arrive in our cups
The costly new coffee is made from elephant dung, the elephants digest the beans before they arrive in our cups

The costly new coffee is made from elephant dung, the elephants digest the beans before they arrive in our cups

The resulting brew is said to be floral and chocolatey, the taste containing notes of 'milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries.'

Regular coffee drinkers terrified of encountering the drink in their local coffee shop can rest easy: the coffee beans, named Black Ivory, are priced at $1,100 (£685.30) per kilogram, making them the most expensive coffee beans in the world.

 

More...

The coffee is the brainchild of Thailand's Anantara Resorts, who say that the beans are 'naturally refined' by the Thai elephants at their Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, an elephant conservation program which will use 8 per cent of sales to fund care for the animals, according to ABC news.

It is sold to visitors at their Golden Triangle property - but is currently in short supply, with only 50 kilograms (110 pounds) currently on sale.

OTHER FOODS MADE FROM ANIMAL DUNG

This isn't the first of its kind...

  • Civet coffee is harvested from excrement of civet cats (a weasel-like creature) of Southeast Asia

  • Coffee beans have been made from deer dung

  • Certain bats harvest good coffee

  • Japanese chefs have created meat made from excrement


Comments (34)

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I have just eaten 3 kilos of coffee beans. Tomorrow I will list them for sale on EBay if anyone's interested.

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Sheep dung must taste similar.

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What on Earth was they thinking when they first decided to try and make a drink from that stuff? "Hmmm, I wonder what it would taste like to make a cup of coffee from elephant dung?" I'm sorry but the first guy to try it must have been a little out of his head.

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Why not swallow then yourself and cut out all the expense of the Elephant.

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*heave* yup, i think i just sicked a little into my mouth. what is wrong with some people?

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I guess they have to put nut's and berries and what not in it to make it palatable.

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The casualty rate among the collectors must be high when the elephant fires them out like a machine-gun ! :-)

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What do the elephants feel about being made to eat all those coffee beans? I suppose they might just think of it as roughage? Bill Healy, La Quinta, 19/10/2012 23:04.....haha, yes, that's a brilliant Tom Lehrer quote. I learned it when I was young and I've never forgotten it. A great philosopher, was Tom.

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What an awful job that must be. "pass the rubber gloves, this stool is extra firm"

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Elephant dung coffee cause some people have more money than brains.

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