This is a continuation of my report from a coffee plantation. In the first part, I wrote about the most expensive coffee in the world - Kopi Luwak. About how it is produced with the help of small cute animals musangs (palm martens), how it is packaged, how our tourists are deceived. If you are interested please read the previous review.
This review of mine is about another elite fermented coffee made with the help of elephants, the so-called « elephantcoffee". It is produced in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. It is called by different names in different places. Somewhere it is called "Ivory" or " Black Ivory(Black tusk)." In my case it is « Voi Prenn" , if translated literally, then voi is an elephant, prenn is the name of the waterfall. I managed to translate as "Prenn Elephant".
When did the first elephant coffee unknown. But the history of its appearance is quite obvious. World fame and ever-increasing value Kopi Luwak long time gave no rest to enterprising businessmen. And they started experimenting with different animals that could be fed coffee beans. The most obvious was the elephant - throw him, as if into a furnace, bags of Arabica and get tons of raw materials at the exit. Just keep counting your profits.
But everything turned out to be not as simple and obvious as with the musangs. The elephant is a vegetarian, and at the same time, not particularly picky about food. He won't eat coffee alone. An elephant eats at least 50 kg per day. food and drinks up to 300 liters. water. The digestion process lasts approximately 30-35 hours. At the same time, the elephant breaks and chews many coffee beans. To get 1 kg. coffee raw materials suitable for further processing should be fed to an elephant about 35 kg. Arabica grains. Performance is not very high. Add to this the laborious process of washing and drying coffee beans. Hence the high cost of this coffee, commensurate with the cost Kopi Luwak.
In the elephant's stomach, coffee beans are processed by gastric juices that break down proteins that give coffee bitterness and are mixed with the juices of other plants (eg bananas, sugarcane) that elephants love. Elephants have a much softer stomach acid than musangs, so E lephant coffee somewhat stronger and more bitter than Kopi Luwak.
By aroma and taste E lephant coffee very different from Kopi Luwak. Its taste is not chocolate-caramel, but, as it were, fruit and berry. But also very fragrant and rich. And his bitterness is more noticeable. E lephant coffee I would conditionally call "male" coffee, and Kopi Luwak - "feminine".
Cooking E lephant coffee I usually work out in the mornings on weekends. My indispensable copper cezve "Ideal Wife" and my "signature" recipe help me with this.
Incredible Facts
The most expensive coffee in the world, called "Black Tusk", is made from coffee beans eaten and digested by Thai elephants, and costs 1100 dollars per kilogram.
According to those who have tried coffee, an exotic drink made from elephant dung has rich, mild taste it is due to the process of digestion in the intestines of an elephant.
"When an elephant eats coffee, the acid in its stomach breaks down coffee proteins, which gives the drink a bitter taste," the experts explained. "The result is coffee with a very mild taste without bitterness ordinary drink.
Read also:
The most expensive and delicious coffee in the world
It is very similar to another type of Kopi Luwak coffee, which is obtained from the excrement of musang animals. However, the stomach of an elephant in this sense has a slight advantage.
The average animal it takes about 15-30 hours to digest coffee beans, which are "languished" along with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients of the elephant's typical vegetarian diet to produce a unique rich and fruity taste.
A rare variety of coffee can be tasted only at four resorts in the world: three in the Maldives and one in Thailand and a cup of such a drink is not cheap - $ 50.
Why is it so expensive, you say? Firstly, keeping elephants in the reserve is a costly business. Secondly, the elephants are fed only Thai Arabica coffee grown at an altitude of 1500 meters. In addition, elephants need eat about 32 kg of coffee beans to produce 1 kg of coffee beans.
Varieties of coffee
There are two main varieties of coffee: Arabica coffee And Robusta coffee. The most common Arabica variety is obtained from the fruits of the Coffea Arabica tree, and Robusta from the fruits of Coffea canephora.
Arabica has more exquisite taste and contains less caffeine. Robusta is a cheaper coffee with a high caffeine content, more bitterness and sourness.
The most expensive coffees
Coffee "Kopi Luwak" (Kopi Luwak): from 115 to 590 dollars per 500 grams
Kopi Luwak is made from coffee cherries that are digested by musangs, which use their keen sense of smell to select the ripest and best fruits. The digestion process removes the pulp and leaves a sweeter grain that is harvested by hand.
Coffee Esmeralda "La Esmeralda": $ 100 for 500 grams
This coffee, also known as "Esmeralda Special", is produced in the mountains in the western part of Panama. The intense taste of the coffee is the result of a cool climate and careful harvesting of the fruit.
St. Helena Coffee: $80 per 500 grams
This type of coffee is produced on the island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon Bonaparte lived during his exile. It is made from the fruit of "Green Tipped Bourbon Arabic", which grows only on this island. It has a pleasant fruity taste.
Coffee "Fazenda Santa Ines": $50 for 500 grams
This coffee is produced in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. traditional way manually. It has a sweet taste of caramel and berries.
Coffee " blue mountain": $45 for 500 grams
This coffee is made in Jamaica and is known for its very mild flavor without bitterness. Coffee beans are also used as the basis for Tia Maria liqueur.
Surprisingly, Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world. The first, of course, is Brazil: the unchanging homeland of both coffee and TV shows. Now Vietnam produces about 18% of all coffee in the world. And it all started, of course, with the French, who in 1857 first brought coffee beans to the territory of their colony.
In addition to the fact that there is a lot of coffee here, it is roasted in unusual ways(for example, with sweet syrups), thanks to which it acquires a unique sweet-chocolate taste. And they serve coffee in any cafe: thick and fragrant, with ice and a glass of delicious green tea in addition. Coffee is the best.
Typical Vietnamese coffee shop: price for a cup of coffee is VND 12,000 ($0.5), green tea with ice — free of charge
Ice coffee with condensed milk: an unforgettable taste!
There are two types of grains in Vietnam: robusta and arabica. Robusta is much more popular, you can often find blends based on robusta with a little addition of arabica. In Nha Trang, you can find many shops on the street where your chosen coffee beans will be ground right in front of you and sealed in a bag - in my opinion, a great gift for family and friends!
There are a great many such stores: choose grains (you can mix varieties in any proportions), and they are ground and sealed right in front of you
The most popular brand of coffee in Vietnam can be called Me Trang (read Mechang). Shops of this company are found in tourist Nha Trang on every corner. Mechang coffee is really tasty, but we didn’t notice much difference compared to little-known brands of coffee with.
The most famous brand coffee in Vietnam today – Me Trang
In addition to Robusta and Arabica coffee, such a variety of coffee as Luwak (or Luwak) is found everywhere in Vietnam. These are ordinary coffee beans that have passed through the gastrointestinal tract of one very cute furry animal.
What is this super trendy animal dung luwak coffee in Vietnam? How does it smell, and most importantly, how did people get to this point?
Who is a luwak animal
The official name of this cute babies is musangs or palm martens.
Curious
And infinitely cute
These animals just love ripe coffee berries. After they ingest the coffee cherries, the pulp surrounding the coffee beans themselves is digested in their stomach, and the beans are passed out unchanged during a bowel movement (sorry for such details). After that, people collect valuable cargo, wash it and dry it. We hasten to assure you that there is no expected unpleasant odor after these procedures.
Valuable musang excrement before washing
The animal is especially valued for the fact that while in its gastrointestinal tract, coffee beans are fermented in a special way, due to which they lose the inherent bitterness of coffee. And the taste of coffee becomes sour.
Luwak coffee beans after washing
Right on the farm they can fry it
Luwak coffee beans after roasting
There is a legend about how people first learned unique properties luwak coffee. A misfortune happened in one poor family: wild masangs (or tsivengs) ate the entire crop of ripe coffee beans for sale. The family was very sad, but then they noticed the excrement of animals, and in them - undigested grains. Out of desperation, these grains were washed, roasted and passed off as regular coffee. What was their surprise when the taste of it turned out to be simply delicious!
Today, the production of luwak coffee is a complex and expensive process. Wild animals are caught and settled on the farm. They produce a special enzyme only 6 months of the year, so the rest of the time they are fed ordinary food, usually vegetables and fruits. When the time comes, all other food from their diet is removed and fed exclusively with coffee fruits. Since it is quite expensive to feed the animals, often they are simply caught in the right season, and after the production of coffee they are released to be caught the next year. In addition, breeding them on a farm will not work: these animals do not breed in captivity.
We saw luwak coffee farms in Vietnam and Bali, and it was a pity for the animals everywhere: such living machines operated by man.
Close animal mink on the farm
By the way, we heard that they began to produce coffee from the excrement of an elephant and even birds. The process is approximately the same as with musangs, but the volumes, of course, are many times greater. We have not seen such coffee in Vietnam, but they say that it is as tasty as luwak. If so, maybe soon furry animals will stop being tortured on farms? After all, one elephant can produce 100 times more delicious coffee than a small rodent.
How to brew luwak coffee
Like ordinary coffee, luwak in Europe or Asia is often brewed in Turks (this method is called "oriental").
In Vietnam, they prefer a different method: small metal cups with a sieve and a press, where coffee is poured hot water, and he insists, dripping drop by drop into a glass. We liked this method, we bought ourselves such devices and now we always carry them with us.
How much is vietnamese luwak coffee
Today in Asia, many packs are sold with the image of the musang animal (the one that produces expensive grains) on the package. The cost of such packs starts from $ 2 per 500 gr. But we hasten to assure you that real luwak grains in such packs are no more than 1-5%, and maybe not at all. Often, under the guise of luwak coffee, artificially fermented coffee is sold in packs, which has nothing to do with cute animals.
Usually, luwak coffee is mixed with robusta and sold. The more luwak grains in a pack, the more expensive it will be. The price of pure kopi-luwak coffee in beans in Vietnam is about $ 1000 . And the cost of 1 cup of luwak coffee in Europe can reach $ 90 !
The price of luwak coffee in Russia today reaches 3700 rubles per 100 gr. or 24 "800 per 1 kg. We quote these prices from a specialized site that sells this particular type of coffee in Russia luwak.rf.
Video about real Luwak coffee from Indonesia:
We bought such packs in Vietnam and for only $ 2, most likely they do not contain real luwak coffee beans, but the coffee is unrealistically delicious:
In Sri Lanka, they organized an unusual, but very profitable business on ... elephant dung. Of course, their whole life there is built around elephants! In every hotel, in every corner of the country, all the attractions for tourists are elephants. And then someone came up with such a bright idea - to make paper out of elephant cakes!
And this paper, as well as numerous products made from it, fly away with a bang. Like hot cakes, excuse me for not elegant comparison)
First, all elephant manure is collected from the fields, washed and dried. Now it does not smell, you can touch it, but we did not become a fireman.
Then the substance is again filled with water, wanders, is heated until it reaches the desired consistency. Just in case, this happens behind bars, since the properties of elephant droppings are not fully understood, and there is a fear that a new dangerous life form may arise there.
Then in special bathrooms it is all settled and mulched. If you touch the substrate for a long time at this stage, a mustache grows.
Everything, now you can fearlessly touch and even write on liquid. The paper is almost ready, it's time to dry it. To do this, it is poured into special molds and left in the sun.
After a couple of days, the almost finished product is taken out and passed through bulky hand presses.
It turned out to be quite a real paper. The truth is very embossed and textured. The inclusions, apparently, are the remains of the breakfast of the elephant-manufacturer)
Now we need to make a product out of this paper that tourists will like. Basically, these are, of course, notebooks, envelopes and albums.
High-quality coffee is not the cheapest pleasure. Therefore, the product that is sold at a low price does not inspire confidence, since it is most often a fake or made from low-quality raw materials. However, the prices for coffee from animal feces surprise and perplex the average inhabitants of the planet. Only a few can afford this exclusive product.
These are such exotic varieties of coffee that not everyone dares to try them.
However, roughly it looks like this:
- Terra Nera from the feces of palm civets. The cost of 1000 g is impressive and reaches a value of more than 20 thousand dollars. It is sold only in one of the stores in the capital of Great Britain in an exclusive package made of special thin silver paper.
- Black Ivory is a drink made from elephant droppings. The cost of such coffee is more than 1100 dollars per 1 kg.
- Luwak is coffee made from animal feces from Vietnam. Not everyone can afford elite Vietnamese coffee, since 1 kg of roasted raw materials with the name Luwak costs around 250 - 1200 dollars. You can try it in expensive restaurants or purchased in the country of origin.
There are also quite a few other expensive but less popular coffees.
What animals "make" elite coffees
Most elite varieties of coffee can be obtained by humans with the help of animals. Some of them have unique extrasensory perception and can find the finest grains. The most famous helpers in this matter are lemurs, monkeys, bats and even elephants. From an aesthetic point of view, it is difficult for many to consume a drink made from grains that have once been in animal droppings. However, coffee lovers claim that the taste of such drinks is amazing and cannot be compared with anything else.
Knowing which animals make delicious coffee from the feces of animals, it is easier to navigate the prices and product names.
Elite Vietnamese coffee drink - Luwak from the litter of the animal musang
The secret is that the musang loves to eat the berries of the coffee tree. Indonesian Luwak coffee helps produce a specific type of marten called musangs. Their habitat covers many regions of Southeast and South Asia. All gourmets agree that such coffee from Vietnam is not ashamed to serve even to the king. The volume of production is small and does not exceed a few hundred kilograms per year.
Coffee fruits are the favorite food of Malayan martens. They are very picky in their food, they will never eat green grains, but will choose the most mature and tasty. During the day, a marten can eat about 900 - 1000 g of grains, more than 90% of which will be digested in the intestines of animals, and only 5 - 10% will come out in its original form, but without pulp.
During their stay in the digestive system of the animal, the fruits of the coffee tree are processed by gastric juice and special enzymes, which gives them unique taste properties.
Interestingly, grains from the feces of females are selected only for 6 months, and the rest of the time, the "girls" do not produce an odorous enzyme.
The collected grains are thoroughly washed, dried and roasted using a special technology. Details of the production and processing of raw materials are kept secret, but manufacturers promise the purity and high quality of the finished product. The drink from it has an elegant bouquet of flavors of sweet caramel, delicate vanilla and bitter dark chocolate.
Today, this coffee is trying to be produced on an industrial scale. However, such a drink is different from the one made naturally. Apparently, in captivity, animals are not so generous with enzymes.
"Black tusk" from elephant feces
It takes about 15-30 hours for an elephant to digest coffee beans. This coffee is considered one of the most exclusive. It is sold only in a few stores in Thailand - the birthplace of this brand - in a total amount of about 48 - 49 kg per year. These figures are not surprising, because in order to get 1000 g of coffee from elephant feces, the Thai giant needs to eat at least 34 kg of selected Arabica coffee fruits grown in the highlands. The process of collecting raw materials is unpleasant: after defecation, the wives of elephant mahouts collect it and carefully sort it out, looking for the surviving grains. Then the raw material is washed and transported to another place for further drying.
Grains that are not digested in the elephant's body completely lose their bitterness, as the stomach acid breaks down proteins that give the drink a bitter aftertaste.
Instead of the lost bitterness, the fruits of the coffee tree are saturated with the aromas of bananas, sugar cane and other tropical vegetation, which are so abundant in the menu of the animal. The grains are in the stomach of an elephant for more than 20 - 30 hours, and this time is enough for them to completely change their properties. The resulting coffee has a soft, rich, delicate, slightly sweet taste without the usual bitterness.
You can try such an exclusive drink in just a few resorts in the Maldives. The grains are always ground right in front of the client so that he can fully appreciate the taste of the drink. A cup of freshly brewed coffee costs at least $50.
Terra Nera from palm civet feces
Due to special enzymes in the stomach and intestines of palm civets, coffee beans are processed. Coffee of this brand is rightfully considered the most expensive, as the amount of the sold product is only 45 kg per year, which is due to the unique way it is made. This coffee is produced by palm civet, which lives in the southeastern part of Peru. The grains, having been inside these animals and coming out along with excrement, acquire a unique aroma of cocoa and hazelnuts. The collected raw materials are selected, cleaned and roasted to the desired condition. Ready coffee is divided into 6 roast classes, 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 24-carat gold tags, which are engraved with information about the manufacturer and the degree of roasting.
Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica
This coffee is obtained in the traditional way. However, everything affects the taste: the unique composition of the soil, the direction of the winds, and the location of the plantations. The grains combine different tastes - from bitterness to sweetness with sourness. The aroma of the drink is unusual and resembles the smell of fresh nectarines.
More than 85% of the product produced in Jamaica is sold in Japan, so it is problematic to purchase such a drink in our country. In addition, 1 kg of finished raw materials costs about 27 thousand rubles.
Not everyone succeeds in trying all exotic types of coffee. In addition to the high cost, there is a great danger of acquiring a fake. Therefore, it is better to try such a drink in those countries where it is produced.
