Black Ivory Coffee is a brand of coffee produced by the Black Ivory Coffee Company Ltd in northern Thailand from Arabica coffee beans consumed by elephants and collected from their waste. [1] [2] The taste of Black Ivory coffee is influenced by elephants' digestive enzymes, which break down the coffee's protein. [2] The company claims to rescue elephants from tourist trade abuse. [3]
Black Ivory Coffee is among the world's most expensive coffees, at US$2,000 [4] per kilogram. [2] The producer sells the coffee to select luxury hotels, [5] where it is sold at US$50 per cup. The coffee can also be purchased online. [6] The coffee product in 2021 was 215kg. [5] The supply of Black Ivory coffee depends on the availability of coffee cherries, the appetite of the elephants, the number of beans destroyed through chewing of the beans and the ability of the mahouts and their wives to recover intact beans. The high price of the product is largely due to the large number of coffee cherries needed to produce the finished product: [6] 33 kilograms (72 pounds) of raw coffee cherries results in one kilogram (2.2 lb; 1,000 g; 35 oz) of the finished product. [6] Most of the beans are not recoverable as they are chewed by the elephants, become fragmented, or are lost in the bush after being excreted. [6]
This coffee was first produced by Black Ivory Coffee Co. Ltd. at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Saen, an elephant refuge that cares for rescued elephants. [6] Now, Black Ivory Coffee no longer produces in the Golden Triangle but in Surin province in north east Thailand. [7] Approximately 20 elephants at the foundation produce the coffee. Eight percent of Black Ivory Coffee Company sales are donated to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, which is used to fund the elephants' health care. [6] The consumption of the coffee cherries does not adversely affect the elephants, and veterinary tests concluded that caffeine is not absorbed from the coffee cherries they consume. [6]
Kahlúa is a brand of coffee liqueur owned by the Pernod Ricard company and produced in Veracruz, Mexico. The drink contains rum, sugar, and arabica coffee.
Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans that enables people to quickly prepare hot coffee by adding hot water or milk to coffee solids in powdered or crystallized form and stirring. The product was first invented in Invercargill, the largest city in Southland, New Zealand, in 1890. Instant coffee solids refers to the dehydrated and packaged solids available at retail used to make instant coffee. Instant coffee solids are commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated. Instant coffee in a concentrated liquid form, as a beverage, is also manufactured.
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It has the highest sales in the world market for hot drinks.
Kopi luwak, also known as civet coffee, is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected. Asian palm civets are increasingly caught in the wild and traded for this purpose.
Coffee production is the industrial process of converting the raw fruit of the coffee plant into the finished coffee. The coffee cherry has the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed or bean which is then dried. While all green coffee is processed, the method that is used varies and can have a significant effect on the flavor of roasted and brewed coffee. Coffee production is a major source of income for 12.5 million households, most in developing countries.
A coffee bean is a seed from the Coffea plant and the source for coffee. It is the pit inside the red or purple fruit. This fruit is often referred to as a coffee cherry, and like the cherry, it is a fruit with a pit. Even though the coffee beans are not technically beans, they are referred to as such because of their resemblance to true beans. The fruits most commonly contain two stones with their flat sides together. A small percentage of cherries contain a single seed, called a "peaberry". Peaberries make up only around 10% to 15% of all coffee beans. It is a fairly common belief that they have more flavour than normal coffee beans. Like Brazil nuts and white rice, coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm.
Iced coffee is a coffee beverage served cold. It may be prepared either by brewing coffee normally and then serving it over ice or in cold milk or by brewing the coffee cold. In hot brewing, sweeteners and flavoring may be added before cooling, as they dissolve faster. Iced coffee can also be sweetened with pre-dissolved sugar in water.
Arabic coffee, also called Qahwa, is a version of the brewed coffee of Coffea arabica beans. Most Arab countries throughout the Middle East have developed distinct methods for brewing and preparing coffee. Cardamom is an often-added spice, but it can alternatively be served plain or with sugar.
Coffee preparation is the process of turning coffee beans into liquid coffee. While the particular steps vary with the type of coffee and with the raw materials, the process includes four basic steps: raw coffee beans must be roasted, the roasted coffee beans must then be ground, and the ground coffee must then be mixed with hot or cold water for a specific time (brewed), the liquid coffee extraction must be separated from the used grounds, and finally, if desired, the extracted coffee is combined with other elements of the desired beverage, such as sweeteners, dairy products, dairy alternatives, or toppings.
Maraba coffee is grown in the Maraba area of southern Rwanda. Maraba's coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of the Coffea arabica species and are grown on fertile volcanic soils on high-altitude hills. The fruit is handpicked, mostly during the rainy season between March and May, and brought to a washing station in Maraba, where the coffee beans are extracted and dried. At several stages, the beans are sorted according to quality. The farmers receive credits based on the amount and quality of the beans they provide.
The history of coffee dates back centuries, first from its origin in Ethiopia and later in Yemen. It was already known in Mecca in the 15th century. Also, in the 15th century, Sufi monasteries in Yemen employed coffee as an aid to concentration during prayers. Coffee later spread to the Levant in the early 16th century; it caused some controversy on whether it was halal in Ottoman and Mamluk society. Coffee arrived in Italy the second half of the 16th century through commercial Mediterranean trade routes, while Central and Eastern Europeans learned of coffee from the Ottomans. By the mid 17th century, it had reached India and the East Indies.
Coffee is a popular beverage and an important commodity. Tens of millions of small producers in developing countries make their living growing coffee. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world daily. Over 90 percent of coffee production takes place in developing countries — mainly South America — while consumption happens primarily in industrialized economies. There are 25 million small producers who rely on coffee for a living worldwide. In Brazil, where almost a third of the world's coffee is produced, over five million people are employed in the cultivation and harvesting of over three billion coffee plants; it is a more labor-intensive culture than alternative cultures of the same regions, such as sugar cane or cattle, as its cultivation is not automated, requiring frequent human attention.
Coffee substitutes are non-coffee products, usually without caffeine, that are used to imitate coffee. Coffee substitutes can be used for medical, economic and religious reasons, or simply because coffee is not readily available. Roasted grain beverages are common substitutes for coffee.
Eight O'Clock Coffee is an American brand of coffee products currently manufactured by the Eight O'Clock Coffee Company, of North Bergen, New Jersey, a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products; its coffee production plant is in Landover, Maryland. It has owned Eight O'Clock Coffee since 2006.
Indonesia was the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world in 2014. Coffee cultivation in Indonesia began in the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the early Dutch colonial period, and has played an important part in the growth of the country. Indonesia is geographically and climatologically well-suited for coffee plantations, near the equator and with numerous interior mountainous regions on its main islands, creating well-suited microclimates for the growth and production of coffee.
Feces are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relatively small amount of metabolic waste products such as bacterially altered bilirubin, and dead epithelial cells from the lining of the gut.
Trung Nguyên is a Vietnamese business group involved in the production, processing and distribution of coffee. The firm was founded in 1996 in Buôn Ma Thuột, Đắk Lắk Province by Dang Le Nguyen Vu and Le Hoang Diep Thao upon realizing the potential and opportunities for the development of the coffee industry in opening Vietnam’s economy. Trung Nguyên is the largest domestic coffee brand within Vietnam, and exports its products to more than 60 countries, including major markets such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Canada, Russia, Japan, Dubai, Australia, and ASEAN countries, including its international hub in Singapore. The group is composed of several subsidiaries, among them Trung Nguyên Corporation JSC, Trung Nguyên Instant Coffee Company JSC, Trung Nguyên Coffee LLC, G7 Commercial Services Company, Đặng Lê Tourism Company JSC and Trung Nguyên Franchising Company JSC. Its most successful product is G7 instant coffee, which took top domestic position in 2016 and has recorded 200% growth in its export markets. Following a high-profile separation with her husband, in 2016 Le Hoang Diep Thao established an independent spin-off firm in Singapore, Trung Nguyên International, which she used as a springboard for her own coffee chain TNI King Coffee. King Coffee now exports its products to more than 120 countries worldwide.
Elephant meat is the flesh and other edible parts of elephants. Elephants have been hunted for their meat since prehistoric times, with traditional elephant hunting being historically practiced by some modern African hunter-gatherer groups. Elephant meat is also widely illegally sold as bushmeat in parts of Africa, which has sparked concerns that the demand for bushmeat is driving poaching.
Thailand is one of the top 25 coffee producers in the world as of 2014, but its status as a coffee origin has not been widely known. Thailand traditionally produced mainly Robusta for industrial use, but the country has quickly become an exciting emerging origin for specialty Arabica and fine Robusta coffees. The origin is unique in that it exports very little coffee and most of the consumption remains in the country. There is a booming specialty coffee ecosystem where farmers, roasters, cafes and consumers symbiotically co-exist. It is often seen as an example of a working coffee ecosystem for an origin where coffee produced is sustainable from both economic and environmental perspectives.
Chameleon Cold-Brew is an American coffee company based in Austin, Texas. It is known for its cold brew coffee and is credited as the first fair trade and organic cold brew company in the United States. In 2014, Chameleon Cold-Brew was given the Best Coffee award by BevNET.
