How about taking a sip from a hot cup of flavourful Kopi Luwak? This is coffee produced from coffee beans plucked from the poop of a South East Asian cat-like mammal. Sounds gooey? Not really, if you’re a connoisseur of fine things with a taste for the exotic.
Taking the definition of premium coffee several notches higher are super exclusive varieties curated from the poop of a South American native bird called jacu, an Indonesian nocturnal cat-like animal called civet, and animals such as elephants and monkeys.
Ultra-premium, and extra exorbitant, these coffees are a rage with the high-flyers and globe-trotters for the extra unique techniques used in their production. Consider this. Jacu birds are allowed to feast on ripe coffee cherries and their odourless droppings are then collected, dried, cleaned and stored.
The coffee that results from this extraordinary process is a full-bodied coffee which leaves a smooth aftertaste in the mouth. Even rarer and more expensive is the black ivory coffee, made from the dung of Thai elephants. The elephants are made to eat arabica coffee cherries and the semi-digested beans are pooped out, resulting in this variety. A slightly distinct technique is applied to the monkey parchment coffee, which is made from coffee cherries chewed for a few minutes and then spit out by monkeys.
According to coffee connoisseur Tapaswini Purnesh, who is also the director (marketing & promotions), Classic Coffees, the general premise around all of these coffees is that they get a unique flavour profile as a result of being extracted from animal poop and being processed by the digestive systems of the animal.
Costing upwards of $1, 800 for a kilogram of black ivory coffee and as much as $3, 000 for a kilo of kopi luwak, these fine coffees are finding a number of curious consumers.
More and more coffee lovers are now increasingly exposed to global tastes and flavours in coffee consumption, says R Nagaraja Rao, director, Bayar’s Coffee.
Etienne De Villiers, cluster director of public relations, Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas, says the black ivory coffee is served at various Anantara properties in Thailand and in the Maldives and elsewhere. “It is not quite your average morning java fix. Our guests love the unique experience of sampling one of the world’s rarest and most expensive coffees. At our properties, the unique visual preparation at the table and the serving of the black ivory coffee are very popular with guests savouring it during the afternoon high tea and also to round off a sumptuous dinner.”
Having herself tried these exotics, Purnesh says the civet coffee (kopi luwak) is a “much smoother and balanced cup than most others. The monkey parchment coffee that I’ve tried is a very mellow cup and is low on its acidity due to the reaction of enzymes in the monkey’s saliva with the composition of the coffee seeds.”
Coffee consumption in India is minuscule compared to the developed world. Against the average over 8kg per capita per annum coffee which is consumed in Nordic countries, Indians drink on average a mere 100 gms per year. And the gourmet blends, which are available at luxury hotels and get retailed through e-commerce and premium stores, are relished even more seldom.
Experts say that given the strong and general high acidity taste profile, poop coffees are not really suited to act as a regular beverage. “They are, at best, an occasional beverage option for people to experiment with. Being extremely labour intensive, they are more expensive than regular blends,” says Purnesh.
IT’S AN EXPENSIVE CUPPA
- Ultra-premium and extra exorbitant, these exotic coffees are a rage with the high-flyers, and are finding a number of curious globe-trotters for the extra unique techniques used in their production
- However, expertsare of the view that given the strong and general high acidity taste profile, poop coffees are not really suited to act as a regular beverage
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