Black Ivory - coffee digested by elephants and one of the most expensive in the world
Imagine a cup of coffee whose price per kilogram equals that of a decent piece of electronics, and whose production process begins in the stomach of an elephant. It sounds like a joke, but it is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, known as Black Ivory. The beans go into the elephants feed, pass through their digestive system and are picked from the dung, washed and roasted. The result is a coffee that is mild, free of bitterness and wrapped in an aura of luxury, yet also a product that raises controversy and questions about ethics. Black Ivory is sometimes compared to the famous kopi luwak, but an important detail separates them. Here is how this coffee is really made, why it reaches staggering prices and what is worth knowing before we dismiss it as a rich persons whim.
What Black Ivory is
Black Ivory is a brand of coffee produced in Surin province in northeastern Thailand. It is made from arabica beans eaten by elephants and then recovered from their dung. The originator of the venture is Blake Dinkin, who bet on a combination of the exotic, limited production and a story about elephants. The coffee is produced in very small quantities and sold mainly to luxury hotels and restaurants, which further inflates its price and prestige. This is not a mass-market product but a niche of the kind written up in the press and turned into a curiosity for connoisseurs. The core of the whole concept is the passage of the beans through the animals digestive system, because it is this that is supposed to give the coffee its unique character.
How the elephants take part in the process
The elephants are given raw coffee cherries along with their usual diet, which includes among other things rice and bananas. The coffee fruit thus simply becomes part of the animals meal. After the cherries are eaten, digestion begins, which usually lasts from about fifteen to around thirty hours. During this time the beans pass through the elephants digestive tract, exposed to its digestive juices and gut bacteria. Then, once the animal passes its dung, people pick the coffee beans out of it, wash and dry them, and then roast them like ordinary coffee. It sounds drastic, but in essence the bean is a hard pit inside the fruit, so it is the pulp and the casing that are digested, while the bean itself passes through the digestive system largely intact.
What happens to the bean inside
The most interesting thing from the point of view of flavor happens during digestion. It is believed that the aromatic profile of Black Ivory is influenced by microbial fermentation of coffee components occurring in the elephants gut thanks to its microflora. Enzymes and bacteria break down some of the proteins that, during roasting, are responsible for bitterness. This is why this coffee is credited with mildness and a low level of bitterness. The mechanism resembles a little the fermentation processes used in coffee processing, except that here it happens naturally inside the animal. Caution is needed, however, because many claims about flavor are marketing, and there is little rigorous scientific research on this particular coffee. What is certain is that digestion changes the chemistry of the bean, but the scale and repeatability of this effect remain hard to verify.
Why so many cherries are needed
One of the reasons for the high price is the extraordinarily low yield of the process. To obtain one kilogram of finished coffee, about thirty-three kilograms of raw coffee cherries are needed. That is an enormous loss compared with ordinary processing, where the proportions are far more favorable. The reason is simple: many beans cannot be recovered. Some are crushed and fragmented during chewing and digestion, some are lost in the dung and in the field, and only a fraction come out in a state that allows further processing. Add to this the labor-intensive manual picking of beans from the dung, washing and selection. This combination of wasted raw material and intensive human labor means that every kilogram of finished product comes at an enormous cost.
How much it costs
Black Ivory regularly appears on lists of the most expensive coffees in the world. Prices vary depending on the source and period, but in recent years figures of around three thousand dollars per kilogram are mentioned. Earlier reports gave lower sums, for example around eleven hundred dollars per kilogram or several hundred dollars per pound. Regardless of the exact figure, we are talking about a price many times higher than for excellent specialty coffee from the best plantations. Per single cup in a luxury hotel it comes to a sum that for most people is absurd. It is a coffee for which one pays not so much for the taste as for the rarity, the story and the prestige of the experience itself.
Comparison with kopi luwak
Black Ivory is sometimes set against kopi luwak, that is coffee from beans digested by civets, small mammals from Southeast Asia. Both products share the idea of beans passing through an animals digestive system. The difference, however, lies in the question of welfare. Kopi luwak gained a bad reputation, because a large part of production comes from civets kept in cramped cages and force-fed, which is cruel and lowers quality. Black Ivory positions itself differently, as a product linked to the care of elephants. This is an important distinction, although here too it is worth keeping a healthy skepticism and not accepting marketing claims uncritically. The mere fact that a product is more expensive and rarer does not guarantee that it is ethical.
The elephant conservation angle
The makers of Black Ivory emphasize the connection of the venture with the care of elephants and the allocation of part of the income to causes related to these animals. In a region where elephants often lost their former sources of livelihood, such a model is sometimes presented as a way to support the animals and their keepers. It is an argument that sets this coffee apart from the worst practices known from kopi luwak production. At the same time a consumer who wants to act responsibly should look for specific information rather than be satisfied with general slogans. Animal welfare is a subject in which marketing oversimplification is easy, so it is worth looking at deeds and transparency, not just fine declarations on the label.
How it tastes and whether it is worth it
Descriptions of the taste of Black Ivory speak of a coffee that is mild, smooth, with notes resembling chocolate, red fruit or spices, and with very low bitterness. It sounds tempting, but one must remember that this is largely a description built around a luxury experience. For similar or lower money one can buy outstanding specialty coffees with a richer and better-documented profile. Black Ivory is above all a curiosity and an object of storytelling, not a rational choice for someone seeking the best value for money. If, however, someone wants to try something extremely rare once in their life and is not put off by the exotic origin, they may consider it worth a one-time experience.
A skeptical look
It is worth approaching such products with a cool head. Many animal coffees built their reputation on the exotic and on a story, not on hard evidence of a taste advantage. The market is also flooded with fakes, especially in the case of kopi luwak, where authenticity is hard to verify without laboratory testing. Black Ivory is in a better position in this respect thanks to its very limited, controlled production, but even so we pay mainly for rarity. The healthiest approach is to treat such coffee as a cultural curiosity, not the holy grail of taste. Real pleasure from coffee is more often born from a fresh, well-roasted and carefully brewed bean than from the most exotic origin.
Key takeaways
Black Ivory is coffee from beans passed through the digestive system of elephants, one of the most expensive in the world, costing on the order of three thousand dollars per kilogram. Its price stems from the enormous waste of raw material, the labor intensity and the prestige, not solely from a unique taste. Unlike kopi luwak it bets on a link with elephant care, though here too skepticism is warranted. It is a fascinating curiosity, but not the most sensible choice for everyday drinking. If you want to compare different coffees thoughtfully and discover what really suits your palate, keep your tasting journal in GustoNote.