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Thai hotel brews coffee from elephant dung

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Press Trust of India Washington
Last Updated : Jan 25 2013 | 5:33 AM IST

The coffee beans, called Black Ivory and priced at USD 1,100 per kg, are digested by an elephant before you drink it.

There are only 50 kg, or about 110 pounds, currently for sale, the 'ABC News' reported.

According to the resort, Black Ivory coffee beans are "naturally refined" by Thai elephants.

Research indicates that during digestion, the enzymes of the elephant break down coffee protein, Anantara Resorts said.

Protein is one of the factors responsible for bitterness in coffee: less protein, less bitterness.

The coffee is ground by hand and brewed table side in a four-minute process. The fragrance is said to be floral and chocolate and the taste "milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries."

Thai Arabica beans are picked from an altitude of 1500 meters and fed to the elephants.

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Once deposited by the elephants, the individual beans are handpicked.

Refinement of the coffee takes place at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, an elephant conservation programme.

Black Ivory isn't the first coffee in the world to come out of animal dung.

A New York shop sells civet coffee, priced at USD 748 a kg, harvested from the civet cats' excrement.

  

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First Published: Oct 25 2012 | 6:05 PM IST

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