Vietnamese coffee Luwak: the most expensive coffee made from excrement. The most expensive Black Ivory coffee in the world. Made by elephants Elephant dung coffee title

In Sri Lanka, they organized an unusual, but very profitable business on ... elephant dung. Of course, their whole life there is built around elephants! In every hotel, in every corner of the country, all the attractions for tourists are elephants. And then someone came up with such a bright idea - to make paper out of elephant cakes!

And this paper, as well as numerous products made from it, fly away with a bang. Like hot cakes, excuse me for not elegant comparison)
First, all elephant manure is collected from the fields, washed and dried. Now it does not smell, you can touch it, but we did not become a fireman.

Then the substance is again filled with water, wanders, is heated until it reaches the desired consistency. Just in case, this happens behind bars, since the properties of elephant droppings are not fully understood, and there is a fear that a new dangerous life form may arise there.

Then in special bathrooms it is all settled and mulched. If you touch the substrate for a long time at this stage, a mustache grows.

Everything, now you can fearlessly touch and even write on liquid. The paper is almost ready, it's time to dry it. To do this, it is poured into special molds and left in the sun.

After a couple of days, the almost finished product is taken out and passed through bulky hand presses.

It turned out to be quite a real paper. The truth is very embossed and textured. The inclusions, apparently, are the remains of the breakfast of the elephant-manufacturer)

Now we need to make a product out of this paper that tourists will like. Basically, these are, of course, notebooks, envelopes and albums.

Julia Vern 54 702 0

Coffee is a food product that is consumed in the form of a drink. Everywhere coffee is one of the most common and favorite drinks. Every day, each person's morning begins with a cup of hot aromatic coffee, it would even be difficult to imagine the beginning of a new day without it.

Coffee trees are grown in different countries, mainly in the tropical climate zone. These trees belong to the madder family and number about 60 different species.
The grains of this product include a large number of chemicals. The main components are:

• caffeine, about 1-2%;
• ester of caffeic and quinic acid - 5-8%;
• 1% citric acid;
• 6% carbohydrates;
• 5% mineral salts.

The production of ordinary coffee differs in different ways of roasting (at different temperatures), adding impurities (which gives this or that taste of the drink), or a variety of coffee tree.
The production of the most expensive varieties of black drink has a slightly different and interesting scheme. These methods of production also influence the cost of a valuable product. So, get acquainted - expensive varieties of coffee and their production.

The most expensive varieties are obtained from animal excrement

The leader among connoisseurs of a prestigious and elite drink is coffee extracted from excrement, Kopi Luwak. The drink under this name is number one in terms of price in the whole world.
Real gourmets characterize it as a drink of real kings. It has a taste of dark chocolate and a delicate aftertaste of caramel, including a little vanilla flavor. Kopi Luwak is truly expensive, a cup of coffee can cost up to $100. Naturally, this is the price in countries far from the place of production.

Kopi Luwak production technology.

Only truly true connoisseurs know how this drink is made. This recipe is quite simple, and it just affects the cost. It is made, or rather obtained, from animal droppings. These animals are Chinese badgers or musangs. They look like the cartoon character Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, only gray in color. These badgers feed on coffee fruits, and they choose the most ripe and largest berries, collecting them both from trees and on the ground.
The ripe berry of the coffee tree has a red color and a large size. Small green grains do not attract these animals, so they only enjoy the ripe product. Badgers can eat up to 1 kg of ripe fruits per day. Eaten, basically, is digested in the body of animals, and only 5% does not have time to be digested, and they go out whole.
Coffee beans, while in the body of an animal, are processed there by gastric juice and civet. After that, the excrement that came out of the animal is collected by a person. Fruits that have not had time to be digested are selected and cleaned. After a long cleaning, they go through a process of drying and cleaning, then again a process of washing and drying. Dried grains are lightly roasted at a certain temperature. The exact recipe for preparation and processing is unknown, its producers keep it a secret.

The grains are washed several times, cleaned and roasted

An interesting fact is that the grains are selected only for six months, the rest of the six months they do not have such a taste. The fact is that the enzyme that gives coffee fruits a unique taste is secreted in animals for six months, and not for the next six months. Therefore, it makes no sense to collect coffee produced by animals at this time. More valued grains from males, as they have a special pleasant aroma.
The collected grains go through a 15-stage sorting stage. And only grains without defects are packed and sold as a whole. The rest are ground and sold crushed. This coffee is produced in southeast Asia - in Indonesia.
In Ethiopia, they tried to develop the same coffee production as in Indonesia. There are also coffee trees and similar animals, which are called viverra (civet). When tasters tried and compared these drinks, the Ethiopian version fell far short of the product from Indonesia in terms of quality.

Chon coffee variety

The second expensive variety is produced in Vietnam and is called Chon. It has a slightly different taste than the product from Indonesia, not worse in any way, just a little bit unusual. This variety is called an analogue of Indonesian coffee. Arabica and Robusta varieties are mainly used, but Catimor and Chari varieties are also less common.

Chon production technology

The main participants in the production of the product from Vietnam are Asian palm citens. They also eat coffee beans and love them very much. The technology is similar to Indonesian producers, grains are also collected from litter, cleaned, washed, fried. At the exit of whole beans from the body of the animal, about 5-7% is also obtained. It is believed that the beans that came out of these animals have medicinal properties. Until recently, people considered palm martens to be pests until they once tried to make a drink from their droppings. Now they have specially made enclosures where they keep these animals and at the same time feed them with coffee beans.
Drying of the beans, not separated from the excrement, is done in the sun, after which each grain is selected, washed and dried again. After that, they move on to the frying process. The temperature at which they are fried is not disclosed by the manufacturers.
The Vietnamese have learned very well how to combine several varieties of a product into one, and the quality does not fall, but only improves. This coffee variety includes the aroma of cocoa, hot chocolate, vanilla, caramel. In general, all the best and necessary to get a divine aftertaste. The cost of this variety ranges from 150 to 250 dollars per kilogram.

Chon variety is produced by Asian palm citens

Chon coffee recipe

There are two popular recipes for making this drink by the Vietnamese themselves.

1. Condensed milk is poured into the bottom of the cup and a special filter is placed on top. A spoonful of ground grains is poured into the filter, and pressed on top with a press. After that, I pour boiling water into the cup through the filter, and an excellent drink is obtained.
2. The second way is somewhat unusual. The procedure is the same as in the first case, only a long glass is taken instead of a cup, and ice is used instead of condensed milk. The drink is served cold as refreshing in hot weather.

The Vietnamese themselves consider their drink number one in the world and say that if you try at least one sip, you will never be able to refuse it.

Variety Black Ivory

Another common and expensive variety of drink is Black Ivory. Translated into Russian, it means "Black tusk". The cost of a kilogram of such grains is $ 1,000. It has its own special taste and aroma, somewhat similar to the previous two, but has an original aftertaste.

Black Ivory production

This drink is produced in Thailand. Elephants are the main producers. They are fed with ripe berries of Arabica coffee trees and receive almost finished coffee from feces. The beans that pass through the stomach of an elephant are processed by the stomach acid of this large animal. The acid is able to dissolve the protein of the coffee beans, which leads to the fact that the bitterness disappears from the finished product. Therefore, even the strongest Black Ivory coffee will never be bitter.

Curious:
The process of digestion of fruits by the stomach of an elephant takes about 30 hours. During this period of time, the grains are saturated with fruity aromas of sugar cane, bananas and everything that the animal is fed with.

To get a kilogram of undeformed grains from the elephant's stomach, he needs to feed 35 kg of ripe berries, while mixing them with other ingredients that are included in the elephant's diet. During eating, most of the grains are simply destroyed, another part is digested by the stomach, and only a small part comes out of the elephant without deformation.
Women take grains from elephant dung, they select whole grains, and then send them to dry. Drying is done in factories in Bangkok. In Thailand, 26 elephants are engaged in the production of black drink.
It is very difficult to buy a product of this brand, since it is sold only in some cities in Thailand.

Black Ivory is made with the help of elephants

Other High Value Coffees

These varieties of dark drink are inferior in price to all of the above, but are not inferior in taste.

• Coffee Yauco Selecto.
  This type of coffee is obtained in the Caribbean, from Arabica. Coffee trees are grown at an altitude of 100 meters above sea level, it is there that there is an excellent climate for their growth and a rich harvest.
  It is not passed through the organisms of animals, so coffee has a significantly lower cost - $ 50 per kilogram.
• Starbucks.
  This drink with this name appeared quite recently in 2004. Introduced in Rwanda by Starbucks. This drink has its own distinctive aroma and aftertaste. When drinking this coffee, there is a slight sourness with a different bouquet of spices. The cost of a kilogram of grains is 50-60 dollars.
• blue mountain.
  This type of coffee is produced in Walenford, Jamaica. A distinctive feature of the variety is the absence of bitterness and mild taste, which is very popular among the population of Japan. This variety is traditionally produced. Prices start at $100 per kilo and up.

Having considered the prices, production principles and characteristics of the tastes of each expensive coffee, the following can be noted that the most expensive varieties are the Kopi Luwak, Chon and Black Ivory brands. They have the same production principle, but different manufacturers. The production of a product by passing the grains through the stomach of an animal is very laborious. Both of these varieties of coffee are popular only among the rich and wealthy segments of the population.

This is a continuation of my report from a coffee plantation. In the first part, I wrote about the most expensive coffee in the world - Kopi Luwak. About how it is produced with the help of small cute animals musangs (palm martens), how it is packaged, how our tourists are deceived. If you are interested please read the previous review.

This review of mine is about another elite fermented coffee made with the help of elephants, the so-called « elephantcoffee". It is produced in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. It is called by different names in different places. Somewhere it is called "Ivory" or " Black Ivory(Black tusk)." In my case it is « Voi Prenn" , if translated literally, then voi is an elephant, prenn is the name of the waterfall. I managed to translate as "Prenn Elephant".

When the first elephant coffee appeared is unknown. But the history of its appearance is quite obvious. World fame and ever-increasing value Kopi Luwak for a long time did not give rest to enterprising businessmen. And they started experimenting with different animals that could be fed coffee beans. The most obvious was the elephant - throw him, as if into a furnace, bags of Arabica and get tons of raw materials at the exit. Just keep counting your profits.

But everything turned out to be not as simple and obvious as with the musangs. The elephant is a vegetarian, and at the same time, not particularly picky about food. He won't eat coffee alone. An elephant eats at least 50 kg per day. food and drinks up to 300 liters. water. The digestion process lasts approximately 30-35 hours. At the same time, the elephant breaks and chews many coffee beans. To get 1 kg. coffee raw materials suitable for further processing should be fed to an elephant about 35 kg. Arabica grains. Performance is not very high. Add to this the laborious process of washing and drying coffee beans. Hence the high cost of this coffee, commensurate with the cost Kopi Luwak.

In the elephant's stomach, coffee beans are processed by gastric juices that break down proteins that give coffee bitterness and are mixed with the juices of other plants (eg bananas, sugarcane) that elephants love. Elephants have a much softer stomach acid than musangs, so E lephant coffee somewhat stronger and more bitter than Kopi Luwak.

By aroma and taste E lephant coffee very different from Kopi Luwak. Its taste is not chocolate-caramel, but, as it were, fruit and berry. But also very fragrant and rich. And his bitterness is more noticeable. E lephant coffee I would conditionally call "male" coffee, and Kopi Luwak - "feminine".

Cooking E lephant coffee I usually work out in the mornings on weekends. My indispensable copper cezve "Ideal Wife" and my "signature" recipe help me with this.

Coffee is the most traded product after oil. There are coffee lovers in every home. Russia is among the top ten biggest coffee lovers. Almost everyone loves coffee, but not everyone knows that the most expensive and most difficult elite and prestigious is coffee Kopi Luwak (coffee from excrement). This is a unique grade of coffee No. 1.

Gourmets catch in it an unusually soft taste of caramel with the most delicate aroma of dark chocolate and vanilla with a persistent pleasant aftertaste. One cup of coffee can cost up to $90 in Europe. Perhaps this adds a special charm to the excellent taste.

The technology of its preparation will shock anyone. Exclusive coffee for a narrow circle is obtained in the most extreme way - this coffee is not for the faint of heart. The method of making aromatic coffee is different from the traditional one. This unique, most expensive sort of coffee is chosen from animal droppings (excrement, in simple terms - ordinary poop).

Soft to the touch and fluffy wild animals, distant relatives of the mongoose Rikki-tikki-tavi, resembling a cat with a big nose - the Asian palm civet (civet, luwak, musang or Chinese badger) are big fans of coffee berries. Moving from one tree to another, animals absorb the most ripe and largest coffee berries in large quantities.

Ripe coffee beans are red in color and resemble the fruit of a bay tree. During the day, one voracious animal can swallow up to 1 kg of coffee beans, from which only 50 g of undigested coffee beans can then be picked out.

Coffee beans treated with enzymes of gastric juice and civet: - dried, cleaned and peeled, washed thoroughly, dried again, then gently roasted at a certain temperature. The exact roasting recipe is kept secret.

Outlandish grains obtained in such an unusual way can only be obtained for 6 months of the year, and the rest of the time the animals do not produce the enzyme that gives coffee a unique flavor. The grains obtained from males have a greater and more pleasant fragrance. A high standard is set for defects in the appearance of coffee beans, the beans go through up to 15 degrees of sorting.

The most expensive Kopi Luwak coffee with a unique aroma is produced in Indonesia in a special microclimate on the island of Java and earn a lot of money on it.

Some researchers have tried to get the same coffee in Ethiopia, simulating a natural process, as coffee trees grow there and viverri are found. According to the opinion of tasters, Ethiopian coffee is inferior in taste to the original.

The most expensive coffee in Vietnam is called Chon, this is the most expensive and unusual coffee.

The cooking technology is as complex as in Indonesia, coffee beans are used, processed by the stomach of an amazing animal. But the locals in Vietnam make coffee not in a copper cezve or jazve, but in a drip filter right above the cup.

The taste, aroma and density of coffee is significantly different from the usual for a European. Vietnamese coffee is very thick, has a very rich aroma and a transparent dark color.

On the island of Bali organized artificial small farms for the production of delicacies for extreme sports. Luwaks are kept in captivity, fed with coffee berries and offer tourists to get acquainted in detail with the production process of the most expensive coffee in the world, and if they wish, even personally participate.

All work is not yet mechanized and is performed manually. Lovers of curiosities with a lot of cabbage love show-offs. Most of all lovers of special fragrant coffee with delicate caramel flavor luwak in Japan.

Huge profits from the sale of "luwak coffee" advised hardworking, enterprising Thais to organize the production of coffee using the stomach of elephants. Therefore, a zoo farm was created in the north of Thailand. The stomachs of a herd of 20 elephants are processing coffee beans for elite coffee Black Ivory Coffee (Black Tusk or Black Ivory).

The stomach of an elephant is many times larger than the stomach of a small predatory animal luwak (aka mussang). Coffee beans are in the stomach of an elephant for more than a day, next to a special diet of vegetables, bananas and sugar cane. During this time, coffee beans are saturated with fruit and vegetable odors, processed by gastric juice, change their chemical composition and are brought out in a natural way, i.e. in the form of poop)

Since elephants are vegetarians, extreme vegans should give a clear preference to Black Ivory over civet coffee. To get 1 kg of coffee, you need to feed the animal 33 kg of selected Thai Arabika beans, hand-picked on high-mountain coffee plantations.

Veterinarians periodically check the level of caffeine in an elephant's blood. Therefore, the cost of coffee for the elite rises to $ 1,100 per kg. Exclusive coffee is offered only in expensive Anantare hotels in the Maldives and in the Golden Triangle Nature Reserve between Burma, Laos and Thailand. The cost of one cup of coffee is only $50. The new variety of exclusive, original coffee is sold in very limited quantities - only 60kg was offered for sale last year. It took $300,000 to develop a new coffee variety.

Coffee lovers, having tried a new sort of coffee, Black Ivari note an unusual taste, which is difficult to find epithets - it is a kind of pleasant taste and incomparable aroma.

In Russia, the first coffee house was opened in 1740 by order of Empress Anna Ioannovna. She was a big coffee drinker. So Russian craftsmen should have developed and put on stream the production of coffee processed by cows. Its productivity with a constant appetite can compete with elephants, and they would call the new coffee - Copi Burenka (or in ours: Coffee Burenka). And there, you see, the name of the pioneer would have been added to history, and even today the export of a new sort of elite coffee would be added to the export of oil and gas.

If you, gritting your heart, gave your entire monthly salary as a teacher in Moscow for a package of coffee, then hold your breath, prepare yourself a cup, carefully preserving the foam during brewing, which from the first sip will fully reveal all the taste qualities, the divine aroma and make you want to drink all the way to the end. Such delicacies greatly arouse curiosity, but sometimes reduce appetite, causing certain associations. For reference: Coffee from the litter comes in different varieties. By far the most expensive is the original luwak litter coffee, followed by elephant litter coffee. The third place is proudly occupied by monkey coffee!

And now we are trying to guess who is in fourth place? Entrepreneurial farmers from the city of Minneapolis (Minnesota) have established the production of coffee from cat litter. And according to its producers, those who have not tried this coffee have not tried coffee at all!

High-quality coffee is not the cheapest pleasure. Therefore, the product that is sold at a low price does not inspire confidence, since it is most often a fake or made from low-quality raw materials. However, the prices for coffee from animal feces surprise and perplex the average inhabitants of the planet. Only a few can afford this exclusive product.

These are such exotic varieties of coffee that not everyone dares to try them.

However, roughly it looks like this:

1. Terra Nera from the feces of palm civets. The cost of 1000 g is impressive and reaches a value of more than 20 thousand dollars. It is sold only in one of the stores in the capital of Great Britain in an exclusive package made of special thin silver paper.
2. Black Ivory is a drink made from elephant droppings. The cost of such coffee is more than 1100 dollars per 1 kg.
3. Luwak is coffee made from animal feces from Vietnam. Not everyone can afford elite Vietnamese coffee, since 1 kg of roasted raw materials with the name Luwak costs around 250 - 1200 dollars. You can try it in very expensive restaurants or buy it in the country of its production.

There are also quite a few other expensive but less popular coffees.

What animals "make" elite coffees

Most elite varieties of coffee can be obtained by humans with the help of animals. Some of them have unique extrasensory perception and can find the finest grains. The most famous helpers in this matter are lemurs, monkeys, bats and even elephants. From an aesthetic point of view, it is difficult for many to consume a drink made from grains that have once been in animal droppings. However, coffee lovers claim that the taste of such drinks is amazing and cannot be compared with anything else.
Knowing which animals make delicious coffee from the feces of animals, it is easier to navigate the prices and product names.

Elite Vietnamese coffee drink - Luwak from the litter of the animal musang

Indonesian Luwak coffee helps produce a specific type of marten called musangs. Their habitat covers many regions of Southeast and South Asia. All gourmets agree that such coffee from Vietnam is not ashamed to serve even to the king. The volume of production is small and does not exceed a few hundred kilograms per year.

Coffee fruits are the favorite food of Malayan martens. They are very picky in their food, they will never eat green grains, but will choose the most mature and tasty. During the day, a marten can eat about 900 - 1000 g of grains, more than 90% of which will be digested in the intestines of animals, and only 5 - 10% will come out in its original form, but without pulp.

During their stay in the digestive system of the animal, the fruits of the coffee tree are processed by gastric juice and special enzymes, which gives them unique taste properties.

Interestingly, grains from the feces of females are selected only for 6 months, and the rest of the time, the "girls" do not produce an odorous enzyme.
The collected grains are thoroughly washed, dried and roasted using a special technology. Details of the production and processing of raw materials are kept secret, but manufacturers promise the purity and high quality of the finished product. The drink from it has an elegant bouquet of flavors of sweet caramel, delicate vanilla and bitter dark chocolate.

Today, this coffee is trying to be produced on an industrial scale. However, such a drink is different from the one made naturally. Apparently, in captivity, animals are not so generous with enzymes.

"Black tusk" from elephant feces

This coffee is considered one of the most exclusive. It is sold only in a few stores in Thailand - the birthplace of this brand - in a total amount of about 48 - 49 kg per year. These figures are not surprising, because in order to get 1000 g of coffee from elephant feces, the Thai giant needs to eat at least 34 kg of selected Arabica coffee fruits grown in the highlands. The process of collecting raw materials is unpleasant: after defecation, the wives of elephant mahouts collect it and carefully sort it out, looking for the surviving grains. Then the raw material is washed and transported to another place for further drying.

Grains that are not digested in the elephant's body completely lose their bitterness, as the stomach acid breaks down proteins that give the drink a bitter aftertaste.

Instead of the lost bitterness, the fruits of the coffee tree are saturated with the aromas of bananas, sugar cane and other tropical vegetation, which are so abundant in the menu of the animal. The grains are in the stomach of an elephant for more than 20 - 30 hours, and this time is enough for them to completely change their properties. The resulting coffee has a soft, rich, delicate, slightly sweet taste without the usual bitterness.

You can try such an exclusive drink in just a few resorts in the Maldives. The grains are always ground right in front of the client so that he can fully appreciate the taste of the drink. A cup of freshly brewed coffee costs at least $50.

Terra Nera from palm civet feces

Coffee of this brand is rightfully considered the most expensive, as the amount of the sold product is only 45 kg per year, which is due to the unique method of its production. This coffee is produced by palm civet, which lives in the southeastern part of Peru. The grains, having been inside these animals and coming out along with excrement, acquire a unique aroma of cocoa and hazelnuts. The collected raw materials are selected, cleaned and roasted to the desired condition. Ready coffee is divided into 6 roast classes, and this must be indicated on the packaging.

The cost of one package starts from 11 thousand dollars. All coffee bags are tied with laces with 24-carat gold tags, which are engraved with information about the manufacturer and the degree of roasting.

Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica

This coffee is obtained in the traditional way. However, everything affects the taste: the unique composition of the soil, the direction of the winds, and the location of the plantations. The grains combine different tastes - from bitterness to sweetness with sourness. The aroma of the drink is unusual and resembles the smell of fresh nectarines.

More than 85% of the product produced in Jamaica is sold in Japan, so it is problematic to purchase such a drink in our country. In addition, 1 kg of finished raw materials costs about 27 thousand rubles.

Not everyone succeeds in trying all exotic types of coffee. In addition to the high cost, there is a great danger of acquiring a fake. Therefore, it is better to try such a drink in those countries where it is produced.