Expensive espresso: Thailand's elephant dung coffee

[webfact]

Expensive espresso: Thailand's elephant dung coffee
AFP

Chiang Saen, Thailand: -- In the lush, green hills of northern Thailand, a woman painstakingly picks coffee beans out of a pile of elephant dung, an essential part of making one the world's most expensive beverages.

This remote corner of Thailand bordering Myanmar and Laos is better known for drug smuggling than coffee, but Blake Dinkin decided it was perfect for a legitimate enterprise that blends conservation with business.

"When I explained my project to the mahouts (elephant riders), I know that they thought I was crazy," the 44-year-old Canadian founder of Black Ivory Coffee, which uses the digestive tract of elephants to create a high-end brew for coffee connoisseurs.

Initially, he considered using civet cats to make "kopi luwak" coffee, which uses beans collected from the droppings of the Asian cats. But the quality of the end product has weakened as demand has grown in Southeast Asia -- including in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Civet cats are also often kept in cages and force-fed beans, a chasm away from Dinkin's desire to support rather than damage the environment.

Lions and giraffes also made the shortlist of prospective coffee filters, but eventually Dinkin settled on elephants after discovering that the creatures sometimes eat coffee during periods of drought in Southeast Asia.

He also teamed up with an elephant rescue charity which saves the creatures from the tourist trade.

But making coffee from pachyderm poop was harder than expected.

"I thought it would be as simple as taking the beans, giving them to the elephant, and out will come great coffee," said Dinkin, adding that the initial result was "horrible" and undrinkable.

"It took me another nine years to actually succeed in doing what I wanted," he said.

- Lose a lot of beans -

The enzymes in the elephant's stomach function as a kind of slow cooker, he said, where the coffee beans marinate alongside the herbs and fruits the animal also eats.

As the beans work their way through the elephant's digestive tract -- a 17-hour process -- the digestive acid takes the bitterness out of the bean.

"I lose a lot of beans in the bath in the morning," he said, explaining that the elephants sometimes defecate in the river while bathing.

The mahouts' wives collect the coffee beans from the elephant dung, before washing and drying them in the sun, a division of labour that is helping to boost the local community's income.

To make a kilo of coffee, the elephants have to have consumed around 33 kilos of the beans, along with their usual ration of rice and bananas.

But the rewards are worth it.

The rarity of the drink is a key part of its branding. In 2015, their third successful harvest, Black Ivory produced 150 kilogrammes of coffee.

At around $1,880 per kilogramme -- or $13 for an espresso-sized cup -- it does not come cheap.

But riding the "grand cru" trend for coffee, it is sought after by customers eager to pay sky-high prices for unusual products.

Black Ivory coffee will soon be available at high-end establishments in Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen and Moscow.

But for now it is sold exclusively at luxury hotels in Asia, mostly in Thailand but also Singapore and Hong Kong.

John Roberts, the director of the foundation that supports the elephants, which have all been rescued from the tourist trade in Bangkok, was initially sceptical of feeding elephants coffee beans.

But he has since warmed to the project.

"The caffeine doesn't come out of the coffee bean until it's boiled... so it's fine for them to eat it," he said.

In addition, families of mahouts are paid for collecting beans and eight percent of the sale price is donated to the foundation, helping to pay for veterinary treatment and facilities for the animals.

- Caramel and chocolate -

For all the hype, it has yet to win round all coffee lovers.

From his Cafe Lomi in Paris, Aleaume Paturle, said the elephant dung brand is more gimmick than taste sensation.

"It's fun but it's not the best product. To make the best coffee, you've got to control fermentation -- and when this is happening in the stomach of an animal, this is harder," he said.

But even if the beverage's taste is "a bit inconsistent," the fact that the beans have passed through an elephant in Thailand gives the product a romantic appeal that will help sales, he said.

At the Anatara hotel in Chiang Saen, where some of the elephants are based, the precious coffee is prepared in front of guests in an elegant 19th century French coffee machine.

"It's a unique taste," said Barbara Schautz, a German tourist, adding she could detect notes of caramel and chocolate in the brew.

"It's not bitter at all."


-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-06-10

[daoyai]

Nice scam product for those with way too much money, the caffine would be released if the "bean" was chewed and digested, no boiling needed but the body mass of the elephant is so great that a vast ammount would need to be injested and chewed so the caffine is not an issue. Why not just have people eat the coffee cherry and poop out the beans? Now that would be "romantic".

[chickenslegs]

They use the remaining elephant dung to make Nescafe 3-in-1.

[craigt3365]

Kopi Luwak has been quite popular for some time. The beans are not chewed, and come out whole. It was featured in the movie Bucket List.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak

I had elephant poop coffee a few months ago at the Grand Hyatt Erawan. It's not cheap, but the machine they use is quite interesting. Coffee was OK. Super expensive. It was my brother's treat. Yes, he makes too much money! LOL

[jaycor]

I have had the Black Ivory brand. Actually pretty good. Still have some left over from my last trip to Chang Rai.

[mercman24]

i have heard of the expression talking sh*t now we have people eating sh*t ,think i will pass on that one

[freebyrd]

Brings a whole new meaning to : "This coffee tastes like crap."

[Emster23]

"Waiter, this coffee tastes like crap!"

"Well I thought you said you were pooped this morning...."

Doesn't quite work... least they seem to know their sh*t from Shinola.

[northernphil]

Come in and have a ' Super dooper pooper scooper of Chang coffee ' What next Chang beer made from ...........'phant pee.

[BigBadGeordie]

Come in and have a ' Super dooper pooper scooper of Chang coffee ' What next Chang beer made from ...........'phant pee.

I have my suspicions that may be part of the brew already;-)

[northernphil]

Come in and have a ' Super dooper pooper scooper of Chang coffee ' What next Chang beer made from ...........'phant pee.

I have my suspicions that may be part of the brew already;-)

OMG ! so what is in Leo beer ?

[Canuk23]

I have an Idea for a new business why not have the Ladyboys to eat the coffee beans and then sell the coffee to all the gay community's around the world, or get the Playboy

Playmates to do the same I'm sure a lot of men would like to taste this concoction !!!!

What a load of crap !!!

[PETERTHEEATER]

I guess that coffee afficionados got tired of drinking the beans extracted from all the bulls*it posted on Thai Visa Forum........

[balo]

No thanks , even if I prefer my coffee beans dark brown roasted , no need to add any extra color to it.

[sabaii69]

Hell, coffee offered in tland tastes like crap anyway

[rijb]

They use the remaining elephant dung to make Nescafe 3-in-1.

3-in-1 coffees are mostly cream and sugar. That might involve a happy ending for the elephant.

[ableguy]

Selling weasel dung coffee in Vietnam is big business, people dumb enough to buy into that will certainly buy elephant shit beans. There is a sucker born every minute.

[bendejo]

Brings a whole new meaning to : "This coffee tastes like crap."

A little boy gets a pet rabbit as a gift.

He gathers up a bunch of the rabbit's dung pellets and brings them to school. A classmate sees them and asks "what's that?"

"They're smart pills."

"Can I have one?"

"Sure!"

The other boy eats one and says "ew, it tastes like crap!"

"See? You're getting smarter already!"

Edited June 10, 2015 by bendejo

[Farang99]

Nice scam product for those with way too much money, the caffine would be released if the "bean" was chewed and digested, no boiling needed but the body mass of the elephant is so great that a vast ammount would need to be injested and chewed so the caffine is not an issue. Why not just have people eat the coffee cherry and poop out the beans? Now that would be "romantic".

This appears to be a spin-off from the Indonesian/Malaysian Kopi musang - civet coffee. This was originally made from coffee beans excreted by wild civets who ate the berries as part of their normal diet, and was therefore extremely expensive due to the difficulty in finding the coffee bean containing civet scat. Then the wily entrepreneurs cottoned on to the idea of feeding coffee berries to captive civets - easy peasy AND THEY COULD CHARGE THE SAME PRICE AS BEFORE!!

The elephant dung coffee seems on a different scale (!) and I wonder what the elephant's digestive system does to the berries, as they are vegetarian, while the civets are omnivorous. It seems unlikely that the beans produced in the elephant dung would be in the same state as those from the civet.

[northernphil]

Gives a new meaning to ' Pass the coffee '.