World's most expensive coffee brew comes from elephant dung

New Delhi: The thought of a coffee bean passing through an elephant's internal organs might not leave coffee-lovers overly enthused, but there is no doubt that Black Ivory Coffee offers the palate something different.And this unique coffee, created in the hills of northern Thailand, is now the world's most expensive variety.Blake Dinkin from Canada is the founder of this of the world's first coffee brand made from beans excreted by pachyderms.Dinkin, 42, has invested the past decade and about US$300,000 (9 million baht) into turning coffee beans into black gold, or at least making them profitable enough to make the money back.His journey started in 2002 in Ethiopia, where Mr Dinkin attempted to convince civet farmers to use their livestock to process coffee beans.Dinkin said: ‘When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness. You end up with a cup that's very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee.' The coffee is similar to civet coffee, or Kopi Luwak, another exorbitantly expensive variety extracted from the excrement of the weasel-like civet. An elephant's massive stomach provides a bonus, however. It takes between 15-30 hours to digest the beans, which stew together with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients.After years of tests and other research, Mr Dinkin settled on Thailand as the best location for his enterprise.Later, Mr Dinkin took decision to collaborate with the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation.The foundation takes care of 13 elephants, saved from the streets of Bangkok, where their mahouts used to take them begging. Now this foundation's elephants have been working as coffee-bean processors.The foundation pays the mahouts 15,000 baht a month for the use of their elephants, and Black Ivory Coffee pays the mahouts' wives 80 baht per kilogramme of coffee beans recovered from the dung.Currently, all the coffee is sold directly to the Anantara hotel group, which has properties in Thailand, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi.The coffee fetches about $44 for 35 grammes at the hotels, ranking it among the world's most expensive brews.AP adds: In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is helping to excrete some of the world's most expensive coffee.Trumpeted as earthy in flavor and smooth on the palate, the exotic new brew is made from beans eaten by Thai elephants and plucked a day later from their dung.Stomach turning or oddly alluring, this is not just one of the world's most unusual specialty coffees. At $1,100 per kilogram ($500 per pound), it's also among the world's priciest.The Associated Press traveled to the coffee's production site in the Golden Triangle, an area historically known for producing drugs more potent than coffee, to see the jumbo baristas at work. And to sip the finished product from a dainty demi-tasse.