How Much Money Does It Save To Buy Whole Bean Coffee Rather Than Ground

Elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores. The fermentation happening in their gut equally they break down cellulose helps remove the bitterness in the coffee beans. Here, an elephant receives medical treatment from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide caption

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Michael Sullivan/NPR

Elephants, different humans or civets, are herbivores. The fermentation happening in their gut as they break down cellulose helps remove the bitterness in the java beans. Hither, an elephant receives medical treatment from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation.

Michael Sullivan/NPR

I s#&% yous not: The globe's most expensive coffee is now beingness produced in Thailand'south Golden Triangle, a region better known for another loftier-priced, if illegal, consign: opium.

Canadian entrepreneur Blake Dinkin, 44, is betting his life savings that he tin can plough his idea into, well, gilded. Here'southward the take hold of: His Blackness Ivory Java is fabricated by passing coffee beans through the not insubstantial stomachs of elephants so picking the beans out of, well, yes, that.

It's similar to Kopi Luwak, the civet coffee that was all the rage a few years dorsum; Dinkin has just supersized the idea.

He knows Kopi Luwak'south paradigm has been trashed because of concerns over counterfeiting, disease and fauna abuse. But he insists at that place's nothing faux — or frivolous — about Blackness Ivory Coffee.

"There's easier means to brand money," he says. "I wouldn't spend 10 years and put my life savings on this if I didn't recollect it's for real, or I idea it was just going to be an overnight gag."

Gag. Right. Let'south just dispense with the jokes here and at present, shall we?

"Crappacino," "Brew No. 2," "Good to the terminal dropping" — Dinkin has heard them all.

And while he'southward a good sport nearly it, it's articulate he's tired of them, too. He'd rather talk about what makes his mash different — and amend — than Kopi Luwak. And it starts with the idea that elephants, unlike humans or civets, are herbivores.

"They swallow a lot of grass and a lot of green, leafy affair. A herbivore, to break that down, utilizes fermentation to suspension downwardly that cellulose," he says. "Fermentation is great for things like wine or beer or java, because it brings out the saccharide in the edible bean, and it helps impart the fruit from the coffee pulp into the bean."

And that fermentation that helps remove the bitterness, Dinkins says, is what makes his coffee unique.

"I desire people to taste the bean, not just the roast," he says. "The aroma is floral and chocolate; the gustation is chocolate malt with a scrap of cherry; at that place'due south no bitterness; and it's very soft, similar tea. Then it's kind of like a cross betwixt coffee and tea."

Black Ivory Java workers sort coffee beans out of elephant dung. Michael Sullivan/NPR hibernate explanation

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Michael Sullivan/NPR

Black Ivory Coffee workers sort coffee beans out of elephant dung.

Michael Sullivan/NPR

To get to that point, the java beans are mixed into a brew with fruit, then fed to the elephants either by mouth, or hoovered right up the trunk. The latter pretty much sounds like a whole lot of change being sucked up a vacuum cleaner hose.

And so you wait anywhere from 1 to three days for the elephant to offload its cargo, pick the beans out of the elephant dung (if you tin can detect it), soap, rinse, repeat. Information technology's non always piece of cake finding "the consequence," which is ane of the reasons information technology takes about 33 pounds of coffee beans to make just one pound of Black Ivory Coffee.

And information technology's not just the slower cooker that makes the coffee dissimilar, Dinkin says. He sources his Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand about the border with Myanmar. The drying procedure is long, and the roasting procedure is precise.

So there are the elephants. Specifically, how do you go about finding willing vessels? What would you do if some guy cold-called y'all and said he wanted to use your elephants as slow cookers?

Blake Dinkin sources his Arabica beans from colina tribes in the north of Thailand. The drying process is long, and the roasting process is precise. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide caption

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Michael Sullivan/NPR

Blake Dinkin sources his Arabica beans from hill tribes in the north of Thailand. The drying process is long, and the roasting procedure is precise.

Michael Sullivan/NPR

John Roberts, the managing director of the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, remembers this.

"As long every bit we could prove that in that location was no caffeine or anything else harmful leaking out, then it was worth trying, at least," he says.

Was Roberts worried nigh the elephants hitting the brew a little too hard? Non really.

"Information technology'southward not necessarily elephants getting buzzed that I'thou also worried nearly, it's elephants missing their caffeine fix and having headaches and being bad-tempered. ... It'south very unsafe. The last thing y'all want is a cranky elephant," says Roberts.

So what does mash No. 2 taste like? I bought a serving — five or vi espresso cups — for $lxx, and saturday on the terrace of the five-star Anantara Gilt Triangle hotel to watch Dinkin prepare the "experience."

Start, he ground it lovingly. And then he brewed information technology, again with dearest. And and so, after it cooled, I was ready.

A serving of Blackness Ivory Coffee at the five-star Anantara Aureate Triangle hotel in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Michael Sullivan/NPR hide explanation

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Michael Sullivan/NPR

A serving of Blackness Ivory Java at the v-star Anantara Golden Triangle hotel in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Michael Sullivan/NPR

The first thing that came to my (admittedly) juvenile heed was a scene from an Austin Powers pic where he says, "Information technology's a fleck nutty."

And, in fact, the elephant poop coffee was a fleck nutty, simply also very flavorful and non at all bitter — merely as Dinkin had promised.

I then went within to pimp a few cups to hotel guests. As luck would have it, the first I met was a Finn — and the Finns drink more coffee per capita than anyone else in the world. That made Juha Hiekkamaki the perfect subject every bit he sipped — tentatively.

"Yes, that's very interesting, because normally I use carbohydrate with coffee. Just this is quite a gentle sense of taste, and, yeah, I quite like that," he noted.

Then it got better, because his married woman, Claire, is a Brit, and she doesn't even potable java. Her verdict?

"It's sort of fruity," she said. "Well, OK, it'due south raisin-y to me. I normally describe drinking java every bit a bit similar drinking puddle water. But it hasn't got that horrible muddy water flavor afterwards, which is really nice. I really similar it."

Don't expect Black Ivory in a Starbucks about you. Dinkin is selling an experience, limited for now to five-star hotels and resorts in Asia and the Centre East — and 1 tiny store in Comfort, Texas, called The Elephant Story, where the profits get to elephant conservation.

"I'g not looking to produce a lot of this," Dinkin says. "I just want to keep it as a small, niche business. I get to work with people I really enjoy beingness with, I can make a decent living from it, and everyone's happy. That's what I desire."

He's however not quite there, just he says he's close to breaking even.

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/20/340154271/no-1-most-expensive-coffee-comes-from-elephants-no-2

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