Black Ivory Coffee // Triple Pack

In the case of Black Ivory Coffee, the highest quality ripe Thai Arabica coffee cherries are mixed in with the elephant's favorite fruits to make a nutritious fruit salad. Fruits may include rice bran, tamarind, banana, and mango. The elephant then voluntarily snacks on the small quantity offered. Unlike small animals, elephants cannot be force-fed as they will simply spit out the food or worse try and attack the person feeding. Once ingested it takes up to 72 hours for the elephant to refine (ferment) the coffee cherries. During this time the enzymes in the stomach remove the protein in coffee which is a major factor for bitterness. The result is a coffee that is less bitter. As well, elephants are herbivores who utilize fermentation to break down their food. If you imagine grapes in a vat undergoing fermentation this is the exact same process but in the stomach of the elephant. The result is that this will be the most distinctive coffee experience you will ever have. It requires 33 kg of coffee cherries to create 1 kg of roasted Black Ivory Coffee.

Elephants naturally eat coffee cherries. We let nature take its course. It takes between 12 to 72 hours for an elephant to eat, digest and deposit the beans. As elephants are herbivores they naturally ferment what they eat as fermentation is a more effective way to break down the green leafy matter that they consume as opposed to humans who use more acidity due to the abundance of protein in what we eat.