Next up at DD's to battle Starbuck's new $7 cup of joe: a cup of dung!
GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Thailand -- In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is helping to excrete some of the world's most expensive coffee.
Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung. A gut reaction inside the elephant creates what its founder calls the coffee's unique taste.
Stomach turning or oddly alluring, this is not just one of the world's most unusual specialty coffees. At $1,100 per kilogram ($500 per pound), it's also among the world's priciest.
For now, only the wealthy or well-traveled have access to the cuppa, which is called Black Ivory Coffee. 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 the price tag of about $50 a serving.
Given the diversity of the human species, there is no “normal” human genome sequence. We are all mutants.
Kopi luwak (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈkopi ˈlu.aʔ]), or civet coffee refers to the beans of coffee berries once they have been eaten and excreted by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other civets.[1] The name is also used for brewed coffee made from those beans. The civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In the digestive tract, the civet's proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape.
The method of collected feces from wild civets has given way to intensive farming methods in which caged civets are force fed the coffee beans. This method of production has has raised ethical concerns about the treatment of civets due to "horrific conditions" including isolation, poor diet, small cages and a high mortality rate.[2][3]
Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process of passing through the civets digestive process improves the flavor profile.
In the coffee industry kopi luwak is widely regarded as a gimmick or novelty item. [4] The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) states that there is a "general consensus within the industry ... it just tastes bad". SCAA claims that almost all kopi luwak available for sale is counterfeit, as 50 times more kopi luwak is sold than produced. [5]
Although kopi luwak is a form of processing, not a variety of coffee, it has been called the most expensive coffee in the world with retail prices reaching €550 / US$700 per kilogram .[6] The price paid to collectors in the Philippines is closer to US$20 per kilogram. [7]
Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago. It is also widely gathered in the forest or produced in the farms in the islands of the Philippines (where the product is called kape motit in the Cordillera region, kape alamid in Tagalog areas, and kape melô or kape musang in Mindanao island), and in East Timor (where it is called kafé-laku). Weasel coffee is a loose English translation of its Vietnamese name cà phê Chồn, where popular, chemically simulated versions are also produced.
In the USA brewed Kopi Luwak sells for $30-$80 a cup!
Given the diversity of the human species, there is no “normal” human genome sequence. We are all mutants.
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