"Elephant dung coffee" is expensive, surpassing the price of "Kopi Luwak" elephant coffee.

It is estimated that many people have heard of what is claimed to be the most expensive exotic coffee in the world. It is named Kopi Luwak because the raw material is coffee beans eaten by civets and then excreted. Now, however, another exotic coffee has replaced the most expensive position of Kopi Luwak: "shit-like coffee" made from coffee beans eaten and excreted by Thai elephants. The coffee, called Black Ivory, costs $1100 a kilogram and retails at $50 a pot, more than double the price of Kopi Luwak.

Workers produce elephant dung coffee beans from elephant feces in the lush green hills of northern Thailand. Canadian Blake has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop coffee with unusual ingredients and processing methods in the mountains here, making elephant dung coffee, along with the previous cat dung coffee, one of the most expensive in the world.

It is understood that the process of producing shit-like coffee is quite cumbersome. Ding Jin hired local mountain tribal women to manually pick Arabica coffee beans as raw materials, and then mixed coffee beans with bananas, sugar cane and other vegetarian foods often eaten by elephants to feed elephants. This gives the coffee a unique earthy and fruity flavor.

After 15 to 30 hours of digestion and processing, the elephant excretes the feces, and the workers carefully extract the coffee beans from the elephant dung and finally bake them into a finished product.

This kind of elephant dung coffee, called "black ivory", has earthy aroma and silky taste. After elephants eat coffee beans, workers extract coffee beans from their feces and wash them to dry. Blake says the digestive process in elephants creates a unique taste like dung coffee.

Located in the luxury hotel Anattara Resort in the Golden Triangle, an American couple ordered black ivory at the hotel's hilltop bar. They say it tastes beyond imagination.

Why choose elephant as the "processing workshop" for coffee beans? "after elephants eat coffee beans, stomach acid breaks down protein during digestion," Blake said. The bitterness of coffee mainly comes from protein. After decomposition, the common bitterness of coffee disappears. " After 15 to 30 hours of digestion in the stomach with other meals such as bananas and sugar cane, coffee beans have earthy and fruity aromas. Ding Jin, who has been involved in Kopi Luwak business, said that the bitterness of coffee mainly comes from protein, and after decomposition, the bitterness common in coffee will disappear. After the elephant eats the coffee beans, the stomach acid breaks down the protein in the coffee beans during digestion.

Elephant dung coffee costs $50 each, making it one of the most expensive coffees in the world. At present, only the rich and those who travel widely can taste "black ivory" coffee.

The article is partly from Xinhuanet and edited by the coffee workshop.