After which animal is harvested coffee beans. The most expensive coffee in the world is not Kopi Luwak! Who is Luwak

Every day on our planet, people consume over two billion cups of coffee. Therefore, this drink can rightfully be called a leader among others sold in stores. And it gained popularity not only because it has a noble aroma and taste, but also because today there are many recipes and ways to prepare it. True coffee fans are ready to spend big money without resorting to, and purchase elite varieties. And the fact that they end up paying several hundred dollars for a hundred grams of a divine drink does not stop them at all. In this article we will tell you which is the most expensive coffee in the world.

Even despite the fact that coffee does not grow everywhere on our planet, its harvest directly depends on weather conditions, and coffee plantings are vulnerable, prices for its grains are only rising. Especially when it comes to a decent product of good quality. What is the most expensive coffee in the world?

Surely, if you type into the search the phrase “what is the most expensive coffee in the world?”, You will see the answer that this is Indonesian Kopi Luwak. Yes, it is really popular on our planet, and has gained increased demand after it was named the most expensive in the film with Robert De Niro. But the reality is completely different, and we will prove it to you.

The most expensive coffee in the world, the price of which today is up to 85 thousand rubles per kilogram of beans, is the Black Ivory variety from Thailand. He is at the top of our list. It is produced in Thailand, according to a special method, which makes it truly divine and extremely tasty.

If we compare it with the Kopi Luwak variety, then the cost of the latter ranges from 23 to 35 thousand rubles per kilogram of coffee.

The most expensive coffee in the world and features of its production

The most expensive coffee in the world - what are the features of its production? Surely you want to know the answer to this question, as well as why some admirers are willing to pay a fabulous amount for it.

Of course, such a high price of grains must be justified. What is the secret of making Black Ivory coffee?

• The coffee farm that makes the most expensive coffee in the world, called Black Ivory Coffee, is located on the border with Laos, in northern Thailand. Its owner is Canadian Blake Dinkin.
• Thai Arabica trees (Thai Arabica) grow here, which are suitable for a warm and humid climate.
• Not only people work on the farm, but also four-legged helpers, elephants. It was they who took on the most important and responsible part of the work.
• After ripening, coffee berries are harvested. After that, they are fed to animals. Next, the fruits are partially fermented in the elephant's digestive tract, and they are excreted naturally.
• Berries are harvested, washed, dried and processed. At the exit you can see grains, the most expensive coffee in the world - Blake Ivory.

This type of coffee is surprisingly mild in taste. While the beans are fermenting in the stomach of an elephant, the bitterness familiar to other varieties of coffee completely evaporates. Thanks to this, when drinking a drink, you will get the opportunity to enjoy a bright and rich coffee bouquet, which has notes of fruit, sweetish caramel and spices with the aroma of flowers. This taste is considered the most ideal today, and it is absolutely impossible to achieve it in natural conditions.

The most expensive coffee in the world is so expensive not only because it undergoes special processing during production, but also because it enters the coffee market in small quantities and is considered rare. To get one kilogram of fermented grain, farmers have to feed the elephant about thirty kilograms of coffee berries. Therefore, for the year it is possible to produce only from 300 to 400 kilograms of coffee.

On the territory of the Russian Federation it is very difficult to find a real variety of such a product. According to official data, it is distributed only in hotels of the Anantara chain and in the reserve of the same name. All points of sale are located in Thailand. There, the price of such grains per kilogram reaches 1,100 dollars. It is much easier to buy such coffee on order; it is very rare in Russian coffee boutiques. Now you know how much the most expensive coffee costs.

The owner of the farm gives eight percent of the profits to a special fund for the protection of elephants.

The most expensive coffee in the world - the top five

"Black Tusk" is a unique, rare, and the most expensive coffee in the world. It is very difficult to find it, and even more so to buy it. Counterfeits are more common on store shelves.

Want to know more information about what is the most expensive coffee in the world after the one described above? Explore our list of the most elite varieties that can really be purchased in our country. So, the five most expensive products, arranged as their cost increases.

Coffee Geisha (Geisha)

Its price varies between 10-11 thousand rubles per thousand grams of fried product. The history of the origin of this variety is quite interesting, so far no one can say with certainty where it came from. According to some researchers, plant seedlings were brought from Ethiopia, from the village of Geisha, thanks to which coffee is called that. But in modern Ethiopia, a similar variety could not be found.

Geisha began to actively gain popularity among coffee lovers in the twentieth century. It was then that the farmers of South America decided that this variety was resistant to rust, which, at that moment, was the enemy of any coffee tree. But the hopes were not justified, plus the whole plant turned out to be extremely capricious and was not at all going to adapt to the climate of the plains. Therefore, its selection was stopped.

In 2003, the owner of the Panamanian coffee farm Hacienda La Esmeralda found several trees of the described variety on his land, and in the same year he won the prestigious coffee competition with these beans. Rumor has it that one of the experts tasted the prepared drink and found it divine, exclaiming "God in cup!".


After that, the victorious Geisha began to march majestically around the world. This coffee differs from others in a clean and expressive bouquet, in which you can feel interspersed with notes of citrus, lime, berries and lychee flowers. The drink has a soft enveloping taste, and leaves a gentle, long aftertaste.

This type of coffee is grown not only in Panama. Today there are several Geisha plantations. The most expensive grains are Hacienda La Esmeralda, costing from 11-12 thousand rubles per kilogram. On store shelves it can be found under the name La Esmeralda.

You can also purchase an analogue from Costa Rica. It is sold on the shelves under the TM Geisha, and costs up to 10,000 rubles per kilogram.

Although the Geisha variety is not the most expensive coffee in the world, it is the winner of various competitions and has entered the history of coffee discoveries in the twenty-first century.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

This type of coffee is abbreviated as JBM. Its cost reaches 27 thousand rubles. per kilogram of roasted grain.

The coffee plantation where the plant is grown is located in the very center of the island of Java, on the slopes of a mountain range. Its main peak is known as the Blue Mountain, from where the name of the variety comes from.

Due to the fact that this area combines a special set of climatic factors, such as height above the sea, soil composition and sea wind, the coffee turns out to be unusually tasty. His bouquet is considered the most exquisite on the planet. It combines three tastes: bitterness, sourness and sweetness. As for the aftertaste, it is famous for its long nutty notes. In the bouquet you will feel the aroma of ripe nectarines.

Producers of the variety consider it very important that it is of stable quality. This is facilitated by the constancy of the climate, the absence of a sharp drop in temperature and atmospheric pressure. As a result, it is possible to obtain grain with the taste characteristics that are planned.


Jamaican Blue Mountain is grown in limited quantities, the total mass of coffee beans is fifteen tons per year.

Be careful when purchasing this type of coffee. There are several other regions on the planet where it is also grown. But there are no such unique natural conditions as on the island of Java, and therefore, the flavor bouquet of this product is completely different.

Remember that a genuine product is always accompanied by a special certificate of conformity issued by the Government of Jamaica to the purchaser.

In addition, the original coffee is supplied to the coffee market not in bags, but in special kegs. Jamaican drink is one of the most delicious, although it is not the most expensive coffee in the world.

Brazilian variety Jacou Bird

The cost of this coffee is from 28 to 30 thousand rubles per 1 kilogram of finished beans. The variety is rare and exotic, growing in the southeastern part of Brazil.

Since about the 60s of the last century, coffee plantations at the Camozim Estate farm have turned into sites for recreating the local natural landscape. Here the trees are grown together with other forest and fruit species. They are cared for exclusively by organic means.

Thanks to this, it was possible to achieve not only a qualitative restoration of the fertile soil layer, but also the development of local fauna. In the area, there is an active breeding of birds called Jacou. They are similar to Russian guinea fowls, even in plumage and color.


During the period when coffee berries ripen, birds willingly eat them, leaving some trees without fruits at all. At first, these birds were looked at as pests, and they were considered impudent invaders.

The current owner of the farm decided to approach the problem from a different angle. Now the birds have lost the status of pests, and have become pickers of precious berries. The bottom line is that the birds absorb the pulp, and the grains are removed naturally. After that, the plantation owner collects them, rinses and dries.

Jacques Bird is distinguished by a very expressive taste of nuts combined with a hint of rye bread. Using it, you will feel exotic notes of fruits and a pleasant smell of molasses. This variety of coffee is considered one of the rarest, and therefore costs a lot of money. No more than two tons of grains are produced on the plantation per year.

Coffee Bat, Costa Rica

The cost of such coffee ranges from 30 to 32 thousand rubles per 1 kilogram of finished beans. It grows in the southeast of Costa Rica, in the highlands. The coffee farm, which is called Cofea Deversa, is engaged in production. Its owner calls his wealth a coffee garden.

The peculiarity of the area is that a population of bats lives next to it. From generation to generation, she flies to the plantation to taste the ripe coffee berries.

In fact, the animal is not able to swallow a whole berry. He just bites the skin and sucks out the sweetest pulp. As a result, the trees are decorated with grains in the shell. They dry out on the branches, in natural conditions, for several days, then they are removed, cleaned and dried again. And so it turns out a unique, although not the most expensive coffee in the world, called the Bat.

Due to the fact that two drying methods are used in the production of coffee, dry and wet, and the grains are selected most accurately, it turns out to achieve an amazing, unique taste. The fact is that bats have a very sensitive olfactory and sensory apparatus, and therefore they regale themselves only with the best fruits.

In the bouquet of this coffee variety, you can feel the sweetish notes of nectarine and coconut milk, as well as the aroma of amazing spices. In the multi-layered aftertaste, there is an accent of chocolate, nuts and exotic shades of fruits.

In just a year, about several hundred kilograms of this coffee are collected.

Indonesian variety Kopi Luwak

The cost of such coffee reaches 35 thousand rubles per kilogram of roasted grain. This variety is considered partially fermented. The fermentation process takes place in the digestive tract of the civet. After the grain undergoes such a peculiar treatment, its taste becomes soft and chocolatey, with a slight taste of peanuts. The fermentation process includes lactic acid bacteria that break down the proteins of coffee beans, thereby removing the bitterness we are accustomed to.

Coffee is produced in several regions of the world. Plantations are found in the Philippines, India, China. The most popular is the Indonesian variety Kopi Luwak, which grows in Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

Get Kopi Luwak in two ways. On special plantations where civets are kept, feeding them plucked coffee berries, or in the wild, in which the animals themselves choose what to eat.

The price of grains depends on where they were grown and how they were obtained. The most expensive is the wild variety of coffee, which is of Indonesian origin. Small lots of one hundred grams will cost you a little more than a kilogram package.

Farm Indonesian Kopi Luwak is an order of magnitude cheaper, its price ranges from 23 to 25 thousand per kilogram of roasted grain. If the variety is not grown in Indonesia, but on a farm, you can buy it from 20,000 rubles per kilogram, but you are unlikely to find it cheaper. By the way, you can drink the most expensive coffee in the world with excellent!

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, but not on the whole planet, but among those varieties that are available on the market.

Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world, accounting for 18%. But most of all, coffee from the feces of animals from Vietnam is famous.

It leads a nocturnal lifestyle, sleeps during the day, choosing secluded places, for example, tree hollows. By the way, he climbs trees very well. There are 30 subspecies of this musang.

Palm civet is omnivorous, coffee is not its main food. In the diet of the animal and various other fruits, as well as insects, worms, bird eggs and even small animals.

Enzymes, due to which the coffee beans processed in the stomach of an animal acquire a peculiar taste, are produced only six months a year.

Luwak coffee

This type of coffee bears this name in Indonesia, where it is also produced. In Vietnam, it is called "chon". Coffee from the feces of animals from Vietnam has become the hallmark of the country.

The fact that it was here that the business was put on stream did not reduce the price of the product, but increased the production of expensive grains due to the following:

• Special farms were created where musangs are kept.
• Animals are specially caught precisely at the time when they produce the necessary enzymes.
• During the appropriate period, the palm marten is fed exclusively with the fruits of the coffee tree.

After the period of enzyme production has passed, the animals are released into the wild. At this time, excursions are organized for tourists who are in the country, on the plantation. And they can see the whole process of producing a unique coffee.

The cost of a product is made up of several factors:

1. Farmers hand-collect the excrement produced by the musangs after they have ingested the coffee fruit.
2. After collection, everything must be properly processed and dried, and this is also done manually.
3. The possibility of obtaining grains in a limited period of the year also increases the price of the product.

On average, luwak in Europe costs $150 per 100 grams. Often this variety is mixed with other coffee beans, which gives the drink an even richer aroma and taste.

Now money plays a big role in a person's life. I would even say that we spend most of our time looking for the most profitable business. Everyone is especially interested in the business that will bring money in a short time.

Most think little about ways to achieve wealth, and this sometimes brings problems. Any business is built not only on fast and cheap methods. Much depends on quality, and it cannot be achieved by easily accessible methods.

Incredible way to make money

In our modern age, people have learned to make money on everything, not only on large and small production. The availability of the Internet made it possible to earn money even on pets. To sell absolutely everything, there would be a desire, but there will always be a buyer.

Returning to the topic of pets, not all owners keep them out of the kindness of their hearts. Many earn on them, you have often seen ads for the sale of puppies or kittens, a rare breed with an ancient pedigree. And how many such scammers among sellers.

The Internet has greatly facilitated access to information, communication at a distance, but also made it possible for fraudulent schemes to flourish unhindered. Therefore, when buying anything online, work only with trusted sites, protect yourself.

The latest innovative way to improve your financial situation at the expense of a pet has been the maintenance of a musang, or better a few. Ask who is it? Otherwise, it is called a luwak, an animal that produces.

I'm sure you're wondering what does the little animal have to do with coffee production? Let's start in order.

Who is Luwak?

Musang is a small animal, dark gray in color with thick and coarse hair, with black stripes along the body. He loves a warm tropical climate because he lives on palm trees. She has many names:

• Malayan Marten;
• Palm civet.

But most often she is known in the world as Luwak.

The places where the animals live are:

• Java and Borneo islands;
• South.

They settle on palm trees, and do not create flocks. They intersect with their relatives only during the mating season. Since both males and females have testicle-shaped scent glands, these animals are sometimes said to be hermaphrodites. For a long time, they were considered pests in their homeland.

Despite the fact that these mammals are omnivores, they eat a variety of foods:

• Various fruits;
• small insects;
• The bats;
• Small birds and their eggs;
• Also worms;
• Small rodents like squirrels and their young;
• snakes;
• Lizards.

Luwak's favorite treat is coffee beans.

For some time, they tried to exterminate them by all available means. The fact is that the animals lead an active life at night, and they are quite difficult to catch. Making their way to coffee plantations, they choose only the most delicious and ripe beans. During the day, the animal sleeps, fitting into the interweaving of vines and small branches.

Unfortunately, it is not known who turned out to be this original. The main thing is that, after tasting this coffee, gourmets found it the most amazing. The coffee taste is reminiscent of vanilla and chocolate without being bitter.

In addition to producing an expensive variety of unusual coffee, musangs bring other benefits to people. Settling, close to people, in stables and other outbuildings, they help get rid of small rodent pests. So these are quite pleasant neighbors, and even with the opportunity to earn money on them.

Scheme of production of the most expensive coffee

How does this unusual taste of coffee come about? According to the observations of scientists, coffee beans, passing through the intestines of luwak, are processed by a special enzyme - "cebitin". Thanks to him, the bitterness that is inherent in coffee goes away, while leaving the rest of the special taste properties, plus vanilla complements it.

Under natural conditions, luwak, or in Latin paradoxurus hermaphroditus, produces only a few kilograms of such coffee per year. So residents and producers put a lot of effort into carefully collecting the resulting product and sending it for further processing. That is why its cost starts from $400 to $1500.

Despite the fact that Kopi Luwak coffee is produced in such an unusual and perhaps even unpleasant way for many. Few people liked to watch the entire production and processing process.

Most prefer not to think about where coffee comes from, but simply enjoy the unusual taste of the final product. Hence the great popularity of coffee only all over the world. Therefore, many coffee companies are trying to produce it artificially.

Entire Luwak farms are kept in Asian countries

Only an animal of the civet family, living in captivity, produces coffee that is not so fragrant and tasty. After all, the food of the animal in captivity is different from the usual, he eats what they give, without choosing the best, as in freedom.

The closest in taste characteristics to wild is the Vietnamese coffee "Chon". This is all thanks to the technology of manual selection of coffee beans, only the best are fed to martens.

Some manufacturers tried to recreate a rare coffee in the laboratory, but nothing worked synthetically processed with civet, in the end it did not give the desired result. Most likely, coffee is also affected by other enzymes found in the intestines of a small marten.

Unusual "producer"

Wikipedia gives a detailed description of the life of the animal. And below you can see a photo of this cute creature. Luwak is quickly tamed, even living with people, on rooftops or near growing trees. And you don't have to put him in a cage.

We earn thousands of dollars with the help of an exotic animal

Recently, it has become popular to breed Luwak, many entrepreneurs earn hundreds of thousands from coffee martens. In content, this is not a whimsical creature, and an omnivore. Although he chooses only the best from food.

But if you want the best coffee as a result, then it is worth building the conditions closest to the natural wilderness, then demand will only increase.

The best part is that it is quite easy to breed musangs, the pregnancy in females is short of only two months and it brings from two to four cubs. Therefore, it will not be difficult to develop an extensive production of exotic coffee. But if you want to be unrivaled in your production, put more effort into creating comfortable conditions for the habitat of palm martens.

Interesting story

After all, living in other climatic conditions, their body is arranged differently, and it is not known what viruses they carry. And legally obtaining permission to import such an animal is quite difficult. So many certificates and permits need to be collected that in the end, many simply abandon the idea of ​​​​establishing such an animal.

That is why the smuggling business flourishes so much. People do not understand that getting a crocodile without knowing how to keep it can result in a lot of problems. It was precisely these problems that my friend acquired, who decided to bypass the law to buy an exotic cat, to be more precise, the “Velvet Wild Cat”.

But she was brought a completely different animal. Instead of the chosen little cat, she was delivered a "Bornean cat", it turned out later. In general, she paid a decent amount of money for this fluffy miracle.

Problems started within a couple of days.

She was not really explained how to care for her, and on the Internet she was looking for information about a completely different variety of cats. And no one explained to her that both the owner and the animal need to be vaccinated against various infections, most of which are transmitted through a bite or cut from the claws.

Believe me, wild cats are different from domestic ones, especially those that were forcibly pulled out of their familiar environment and not tamed to people. So my friend suffered from her lack of awareness.

This story ended rather sadly, firstly, the animal got sick due to improper care. Secondly, his owner became seriously ill with a severe fever due to a cut on her hand left by a wild cat.

Of course, they managed to cure both, but after being discharged from the hospital, the friend was dragged for a long time to various authorities and fined a serious amount for the illegal import of the animal.

I can say one thing: do not chase exotic, the result may not please you

If you have such an admiration for wild animals, then go to the zoo or go on a tourist safari, where you can safely enjoy the wildlife.

I hope my tips help you. Thanks to all my subscribers, your opinion is important to me, so write your questions, I will be happy to answer them. Share useful interesting articles with your friends and subscribe to. See you.

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I bought coffee yesterday and witnessed a funny scene that threw up a topic for a story. A puffy and equally self-confident lady told a very nice seller that she had already tried all kinds of coffee (😀) and didn’t know what to buy…

The young man very politely asked the customer if she knew that the most expensive coffee in the world is made from ... animal poop! The lady was noisily upset, said that the seller was mocking her and left the coffee shop (to our great joy).

But the guy was absolutely right - one of the most expensive varieties in the world, luwak coffee (or kopi luwak, Kopi Luwak) make a very cute animal named from the excrement musang or palm civet ( paradoxurus hermaphroditus).

The word "kopi" is translated in the local dialect in two ways - both as musang and as coffee.

This coffee is produced commercially in Indonesia, the Philippines, South India and Vietnam. It is indeed one of the most expensive coffees in the world.

The most amazing thing is the flowery epithets that are awarded to luwak: “the most prestigious in the world”, “premium class”, “drink of the gods”, “caramel”, “with a delicate aroma of vanilla and chocolate” (that squeamish lady would have fainted already 😀 )

How is this fantastic drink made? Yes, very tricky: civets eat fresh coffee berries, which are processed in their stomachs and intestines by special digestive enzymes.

The special taste of kopi-luwak is explained by the ability of the gastric juice of musangs to break down some proteins that give bitterness to the finished drink, as well as by the action of bacteria of the gastrointestinal tract and interaction with secretions of glands, which include civet.

Coffee beans that naturally leave the digestive tract of the musanga (with those same, well, poop ...) are dried in the sun,

then they are thoroughly washed, after which they are dried again in the sun and only then fried.

Wild civets, by the way, are great gourmets and fussy - they choose the most selective and ripe coffee berries. And farmers then carefully collect their poop.

And initially they made their way to coffee plantations wild civets, but then some ingenious joker came up with the idea to pick the grains from their poop and process it in the manner described above. And away we go - now these unfortunate civets, which are a bit like cats in their habits, are kept on farms in cages and force-fed with coffee berries.

Each civet is fed about 1 kg of coffee berries per day, which yields only about 50 g of grains in poop.- this "small efficiency" explains the fact that luwak is one of the most expensive coffees on our planet.

Moreover, in captivity, musangs sit in cramped cages and cannot move along the branches of a coffee tree and choose especially ripe fruits, as their wild counterparts do - on farms, civet are forced to eat what the staff feeds them.

Also, in farm conditions, the diet of musangs differs from the natural one, which can affect the taste of the drink. In addition, methods have been developed to artificially flavor coffee with civet.

Civets are actually predominantly predatory animals and in nature feed on rodents, birds and their eggs, bats and lizards, insects and worms, and sometimes fruits and coffee berries. On farms, musangs are fed not only with coffee berries, but also with chicken.

Moreover, these musangs are active at night, so coffee berries are fed to them in the evening (while hungry after hibernation), and chicken is given at night.

The high cost of luwak is also explained by the fact that civets categorically refuse to breed in hateful captivity, and production can be increased only by capturing more and more new wild animals. Sadness!!!

Moreover, this very “magic enzyme”, which gives coffee beans a “soft flower shade”, is produced in the body of a civet for only six months, therefore, on many farms, animals are released for a walk in nature, and then they are caught again so as not to feed 6 months in vain.

The price of luwak coffee (kopi luwak) ranges from 250 to 1200 dollars per kilogram.

Of course, I haven’t tried this coffee, but I found reviews on the Internet that it has a mild and less tart taste than more familiar coffee varieties, but the price is clearly inflated.

Apparently, this is already a matter of psychology and snobbery - to enjoy not the product, but the money spent on it and the opportunity to boast to my friends later that I drank this most expensive luwak coffee in the world.

There is another high-end coffee also produced by palm civet in southeastern Peru called Terra Nera, which is produced no more than 45 kg per year and is sold only in one of the stores in London, so its cost per kilogram can exceed the terrible figure of 20 thousand dollars.

Ready coffee is divided into 6 classes of roasting, 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 24k gold tags, where information about the manufacturer and the degree of roasting is engraved.

It turns out that exactly Terra Nera- the most expensive type of coffee, although Wikipedia considers the rarest elephant coffee to be the most expensive (it is produced in Thailand only 49-50 kg per year!)

And the third grade of coffee is made from animal excrement from elephant droppings!

It's called "Black Tusk" "Black Ivory"(English black ivory - black ivory or black tusk) and is made from Arabica coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of elephants.

This rare coffee is produced in the Golden Triangle, on the border of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. It is also one of the rarest and most expensive coffees in the world - 35 grams will cost gourmets 66 US dollars.

After the coffee beans enter the elephant's stomach, its stomach acid breaks down the protein that makes the coffee bitter. As a result, according to tasters, a soft drink is obtained without the usual bitterness for coffee.

The elephant digests coffee beans from 15 to 30 hours along with its usual food - bananas, sugar cane and other plant components of the elephant's diet. During digestion, the grains are saturated with an earthy and fruity smell, undergoing a natural fermentation process.

Connoisseurs say that coffee made from elephant feces has the aroma of chocolate and flowers, and its taste carries notes of milk chocolate, hazelnuts and a subtle hint of fragrant spices and red coffee berries.

Elephant mahouts' wives collect manure, knead it, and extract whole coffee berries from it. The berries are thoroughly washed and coffee beans are extracted from them, which are subsequently transported to Bangkok for drying.

The price of a kilogram of black ivory coffee exceeds $ 1,100, and one small cup of this elite drink will cost you $ 50-100.

You can taste unique coffee only in Abu Dhabi, at the Anantara Golden Triangle resort and at the luxury hotels of the Anantara chain.

To get one kilogram of Black Ivory, you need to feed the elephant 33 kilograms of fresh coffee berries, and the elephants agree to eat only the best Arabica varieties grown at a 1.5-kilometer altitude.

Most of the coffee beans simply disappear - chewed or lost in the tall grass after the elephant's feces. Yes, and keeping these large animals is quite expensive.

It's nice that 8% of all Black Ivory sales go to the Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, whose main goal is to preserve the elephant population.

Note. This article uses photographs from open sources on the Internet, all rights belong to their authors, if you think that the publication of any photo violates your rights, please contact me using the form in the section, the photo will be deleted immediately.

There are many products in the world that are available only to a select number of buyers. These are rare, unusual goods, which, due to their exclusivity, are expensive. They also include coffee.

unusual coffee

There are so exotic varieties of coffee that not everyone dares to try them. These include the most expensive Kopi Luwak coffee and the equally precious Black Tusk. Both are extracted from animal feces. It is difficult to answer the question of who came up with the idea of ​​extracting grains from the droppings of wild representatives of exotic fauna, but this business quickly began to bring enormous income.

Today, small coffee plantations in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries specializing in the production of the most expensive coffee in the world bring the same income as large plantations in Brazil. There is nothing complicated in the production technology, you just need to feed the animals with whole coffee berries and extract them from the excrement in time.

On the world market, the most expensive coffee in the world can reach prices of 1200–1500 euros per kilogram, and a cup of a drink made from it can reach 50–90 euros. Not everyone can afford to start the morning with such an expensive product. What is special about coffee from excrement?

When whole berries harvested from the coffee tree pass through the animal's digestive tract, the action of the animal's digestive enzymes breaks down the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates contained in the grain. Due to this, the component composition changes, bitterness disappears, and some substances are transformed into others. This is a kind of fermentation that changes the quality of the product and directly affects the taste of the future drink.

Gourmets say that these varieties of coffee are distinguished by an amazing softness of taste and many shades in the aroma. They are worth trying at least once in your life.

Kopi Luwak

In most rankings, the most expensive coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak. Its main producers are Indonesia, Vietnam, South India and the Philippines. Here are small plantations of Arabica, growing at an altitude of at least 1500 m above sea level.

A small rodent also lives here - civet or luwak, as the locals call it. It is he who is the main person in the chain of turning ordinary coffee berries into elite and expensive coffee.

Wild civet eats about 1500 kg of fruit per night

The animal is kept in a zoo and processes several kilograms of mature and not only coffee berries every day. Its content is not so cheap for farmers, because for normal life it needs meat. The rodent is nocturnal, so feeding occurs late in the evening and early in the morning. To get 50 g of coffee beans ready for processing after the animal, you need to feed him about 1 kg of berries.

In addition, the luwak must be released to freedom, as it does not breed in captivity. They are later captured again and placed in a zoo.

How is coffee processed from animal feces obtained?

• Plantation workers collect animal excrement daily and send it to dry.
• After that, the grains are washed under running water and separated from the excrement.
• Next comes the process of drying the grains.
• The final step is roasting.

As a rule, they are subjected to a medium degree of roasting, because the taste of the future drink should be soft with an almost imperceptible bitterness. Coffee made from roasted beans has a chocolate-caramel flavor and vanilla aroma. Today, a lot of Kopi Luwak comes from Vietnam. This country in recent years has become one of the world leaders in the sale of coffee in general.

What explains such a high price for Luwak coffee? In addition to the cost of caring for plantations and paying workers, farmers need to keep wild animals that require care, and this is a lot of money. In addition, the output is much smaller amount of good coffee beans than if they were simply collected and dried. Weight is added to the price by advertising praising the unusual taste of the drink.

black tusk

Another product that can challenge the title of the most expensive coffee in the world is the Black Tusk. It is produced in Thailand and three regions in the Maldives. Already from the name it is clear which animal is an important link in the coffee production chain. This is an elephant. He is also not averse to eating coffee berries.

The coffee production technology is similar to the Indonesian Kopi Luwak. The elephant eats grains, or rather berries, which, passing through the digestive tract, undergo a kind of fermentation. Then they are removed from the feces, washed, dried and fried. Digested grain in the amount of 1 kg is obtained from more than 30 kg of berries.

The elephant loves fruits and berries, so Black Ivory has a mixture of their flavors and aromas.

The drink made from the same grains has a rich fruity taste and aroma, it contains floral, chocolate and nutty notes at the same time. There is no bitterness in it, but no sourness either. It is tender and soft, as befits a good Arabica. All over the world this type of coffee is known as Black Ivory, its price reaches 500-600 dollars per 500 grams.

Other Expensive Coffees

In addition to those varieties of coffee that are obtained thanks to animals, there are equally valuable ones produced in a less exotic way. Expensive varieties of coffee grown in the traditional way are distinguished by their exquisite taste only due to the peculiarities of climatic conditions and the varieties of the coffee trees themselves. Below is a rating of the most valuable of them.

• Hacienda La Esmeralda ($100-125 per 1 kg), produced in Panama, Arabica plantations are located high in the mountains in the shade of branching Guavas. The drink has a mild but rich taste and is considered the purest in the world.
• St. Helena Coffee ($80 per 500g), grown in Saint Helena. Distinguished by citrus, floral and caramel notes in the finished drink.
• El Injerto from Guatemala ($50 for 500g). The finished drink has the taste and aroma of exotic berries, chocolate and fruits with a nutty aftertaste.
• Fazenda Santa Ines from Brazil ($50 for 500g). Winner of many world awards at coffee exhibitions. Has a hint of citrus and chocolate.
• Blue Mountain from Jamaica ($50 for 500g). It is grown in the mountains at an altitude of more than 1500 meters. Gives rich taste of chocolate and fruits with refined notes of red pepper.

Traditionally, expensive coffees are sold in beans. Soluble is not included in the list of elite products. It is also difficult to say which of them will suit your taste. One thing is known, products with the elite mark, as a rule, confirm their special position, so they should be allowed at least occasionally.