Elephant poop coffee is one of the world’s rarest coffees. (Source: black_ivory_coffee/Instagram)Akshay Kumar recently revealed how he got a taste of elephant poop tea during a special episode of Into the Wild with Bear Grylls. He even shared a glimpse of it on Instagram.

While the video clip does not show how the elephant poop tea was made, turns out the animal poop is indeed used to make a rare brand of tea-coffee hybrid beverage. If you are cringing at the thought, here is something that will surprise you — the drink is said to be quite tasty.

Elephant poop tea/coffee

The idea to make a beverage out of elephant dung originated in Thailand. For this, elephants are fed Thai Arabica cherries first, by mixing them in their regular food. These are herbivorous animals and the fermentation process they use to break down the cellulose in their food brings out “sweet, fruity flavours” in the waste, resulting in a hybrid tea-coffee product with a “chocolatey, cherry taste”, according to africageographic.com.

Once the elephants excrete the cherries, they are hand-picked by caregivers. Then they are washed and sun-dried. They are hulled and sorted by machine and finally roasted.

The elephant tea-coffee hybrid is popularly known as Black Ivory Coffee that was first produced by the eponymous company at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Saen, an elephant refuge that cares for rescued elephants.

Read| India starts producing world’s most expensive coffee

Cost of elephant poop coffee

Black Ivory Coffee is deemed the world’s rarest and one of the most expensive coffees that is now primarily sold to select five-star hotels, mentions blackivorycoffee.com. Approximately 33 kg of coffee cherries are required to produce just one kg of coffee. As per the website, a single package of black ivory coffee (35 gm) costs USD 100 (Rs 7,357).

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