One lump or poo: World's most expensive coffee at £30 a cup made using beans digested and, er, flavoured by elephants
- Black Ivory is produced in northern Thailand costing $1,100 (£685) per kg
- Elephants are fed the coffee and beans are taken from the dung
- Unique coffee only sold in Thailand, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi
By
DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 10:55 GMT, 7 December 2012 | UPDATED: 19:05 GMT, 2 April 2013
Forget robusta and arabica - this is the world's most expensive coffee, given its unique flavour by...an elephant's digestive tract.
The thought of a coffee bean passing through an elephant's internal organs might not leave coffee-lovers overly enthused.
But the unique coffee, created in the hills of northern Thailand, is now the world's most expensive variety.
The elephant dung coffee is created when the animals have eaten and digested the beans, with a gut reaction inside the animals said to be responsible for the unique flavouring.
Attendants scurry to collect the huge animals' dung, before forensically sifting through it for the valued beans.
The provenance of the beans may leave some connoisseurs feeling nauseous, but the coffee's price tag certainly places the bean at the highest end of the huge global market.
The coffee is priced at $1,100 (£685) per kilogram.
But for those brave enough to give the coffee a try, only the most well-travelled will be able to get their hands on a cup.
It was launched last month at a few luxury hotels in remote corners of the world - first in northern Thailand, then the Maldives and now Abu Dhabi - with a price tag of around $50 (£31) a cup.
The coffee's creator, Blake Dinkin, said scientific research had made him pursue the idea of using elephants to produce the coffee.
Dinkin, who spent $300,000 (£187,000) developing the idea, said: 'When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness. You end up with a cup that's very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee.'
The coffee is similar to civet coffee, or Kopi Luwak, another exorbitantly expensive variety extracted from the excrement of the weasel-like civet.
An elephant's massive stomach provides a bonus, however. It takes between 15-30 hours to digest the beans, which stew together with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients.
Dinkin, 42, from Canada, said this helped infuse unique earthy and fruity flavors.
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Black Ivory coffee made in Thailand using beans digested by elephants | Daily Mail Online
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. This tribal is a famous trader in our nation, so in the past the place were believed to be inherited with so many race beside Malay. Actually a recorded one is Arab village at Central Padang (near beach) based on China story.
