How is Elephant-Refined Coffee Made?
The world’s rarest and most expensive coffee is elephant-refined coffee from Black Ivory Coffee. This prized coffee gathers press and praise around the world, from gourmet coffee aficionados to glamorous restaurants and exclusive gatherings.
Only 500 lb of Black Ivory Coffee are created each year, because of its unique creation process, courtesy of majestic elephants – making this a delicacy savoured by a select few.
The art – and science – of elephant-refined coffee
Our gentle elephants love snacking on ripe, hand-selected Arabica coffee cherries along with their wholesome diet of grasses, bananas, rice bran, tamarind, and sugar cane. These coffee cherries are the fruits of the Coffea arabica plant, a species of coffee plant that thrives in northern Thailand and is renowned for high-quality beans.
Twenty kilograms (44 lbs) of coffee cherries are required to make each kilogram of Black Ivory Coffee. After 10 to 72 hours of bio-fermentation in the stomach, the elephant excretes the coffee beans, which are harvested, carefully and thoroughly washed, sun-dried to perfection, then precisely roasted in small batches.
Yes, “elephant dung coffee” as some call it, is completely safe to drink, because the beans are removed from the cherry’s exterior post-elephant and then thoroughly cleaned. Also, the intense heat of the roasting temperatures (223°C for over 10 minutes) would kill off any enteric bacteria. You can feel completely assured that Black Ivory Coffee is a perfectly safe and satisfying coffee experience.
What is bio-fermentation?
The fascinating science behind “elephant coffee” starts with the animals’ natural diet and digestion. Elephants have special gut microflora that creates bio-fermentation, to break down cellulose in their diet of grasses, leaves, fruits, bark and roots. “The elephant's digestive tract functions a bit like a slow cooker, becoming a fermentation vat,” says Blake Dinkin, founder of Black Ivory Coffee. “The elephant’s natural stomach enzymes also break down protein in the coffee cherries, refining the flavour even further and significantly reducing bitterness. This lends our coffee a unique richness and depth of flavour and aroma.”
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Why are drinks fermented?
Fermentation is known to improve the flavours of wine, beer – and coffee. In winemaking, vintners use fermentation, where yeast consumes the natural sugars in grapes, converting them into alcohol, and infusing complex flavours into the Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Cabernet, Pinot, or Riesling.
In coffee, fermentation can be natural (allowing the beans to ripen and dry while still inside the cherry) or via an animal such as civets or elephants. There’s also artificial anaerobic fermentation, popularised by Sasa Sestic, where cherries are macerated and fermented in a barrel, using CO2 to remove oxygen.
To produce elephant-refined coffee, the elephants’ natural fermentation bacteria feed on the organic sugars in their normal diet and in the extra food (bananas, rice bran, and coffee cherries) provided from Black Ivory Coffee.
How does coffee fermentation improve flavour?
The coffee fermentation process imparts flavours from the fruit of the cherry into the beans. “With elephant coffee, the coffee beans also marinate and ferment alongside herbs and fruits the elephant has eaten, enriching the aroma and taste,” says Dinkin. “Elephant digestion is very slow (much slower than for civets), and this long duration means the porous coffee cherries are influenced by other foods the elephant eats, like sugar cane, grass and tamarind.”
Dinkin wants people to taste the coffee bean, not just the roast. "The aroma of Black Ivory Coffee has hints of rich chocolate and flavours of ripe berries – and no bitterness,” he says.
Discover the smooth satisfaction of Black Ivory Coffee for yourself – or as the perfect gift for coffee connoisseurs, adventurous foodies, or committed hedonists.
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Animal welfare at Black Ivory Coffee
Our mahouts (elephant care-givers) have a special bond with their elephants, and carefully look after and even pamper them, with love, walks, baths, and nutritious food the animals love.
Animal welfare and social responsibility are key values of the Black Ivory Coffee brand. This starts with how we encourage the elephants to eat the coffee cherries. Elephants express autonomy and self-determined behaviour, meaning that (unlike civets) they cannot be force-fed (not that we would dream of it), and anyone who tried to do so would quickly regret it. Because of our meticulous care for our animals’ health and wellbeing, we offer the elephants a well-balanced and nutritious diet, with a limited amount of coffee cherries as an additional snack. Luckily, they love coffee cherries, but even so, our gentle approach means we harvest a limited amount of coffee beans, just 495 pounds in 2025, making Black Ivory Coffee the most exclusive coffee in the world.
The Elephant in Thai Culture
Elephants hold a significant place in Thailand’s culture as a national symbol and part of the nation’s history, as well as religion. Elephants have also featured in Thailand’s tourist industry, where they have been used – and sometimes even abused, causing harm and stress for the animals. In the past, some elephants in South East Asia were subjected to harsh methods of training, or chained in small, dirty pens, and fed poor diets. This mistreatment was often both physically and psychologically harmful to elephants in Thailand (and in other parts of the world), not least because they are such social and intelligent creatures.
Today, the welfare of elephants around the world is a growing concern. Tourists and businesses are more wary of exploitation, and laws are tightening up to protect domestic elephants and those in captivity. During COVID, the struggles of the tourism industry further highlighted how precarious the lives – and wellbeing – of these amazing animals can be.
At Black Ivory Coffee, we cherish elephants and pride ourselves on our high standards, ensuring that the elephants are not overfed cherries. We also treat everyone we work with respectfully, paying more than a fair wage in every step of our value chain (cherries, labour wages, food, off-season grass supply and more). Thanks to our caring and professional mahouts, you can feel reassured that the elephants working with Black Ivory Coffee are valued members of our coffee family. You can also feel confident that every bean of Black Ivory Coffee is genuinely elephant-refined.
The Amazing Elephants at the Heart of Black Ivory Coffee
We have the utmost respect for the elephants who help us create our elephant-refined coffee. They are gentle, wise, and far more advanced than you may realise. Here are a few fascinating facts about elephants.
Elephants are not just the largest land animals on earth – they are also highly intelligent. Elephants have strong social bonds and care deeply about other members of their family and herd. Elephants can show a range of emotions, including empathy, playfulness, and even grief – elephants are known to mourn their dead.
Elephants are experts at communication, using a range of vocalisations (trumpet calls, bellows, rumbles, and moans) to communicate with those around them. They even use ground-based infrasound (low-frequency vibrations) that can travel for miles, for instance to alert other elephants to danger. They also use body language, touch, and even scent to communicate.
The elephants’ tusks start to grow when they’re around two years old. The tusks aren’t just a decorative feature – elephants use their tusks to rip bark off trees or dig up tasty roots. Tusks are also a superb defensive weapon in a fight. But (because of human greed and disrespect), these beautiful ivory tusks are yet another reason elephants are endangered around the world.
Elephants’ trunks are a very curious feature. The trunk has approximately 150,000 muscle segments, making it highly adaptable, flexible, and strong. Elephants use their trunks to breathe, and even as a snorkel when swimming. Elephants use their trunks to eat, to drink (by sucking up water then placing it in the mouth), and to trumpet. They also use their trunks to lift things (Asian elephants can lift up to almost 770 pounds). They can use their trunks as a defensive weapon, pushing away a hostile animal (or human), using the trunk as a whip, or even throwing things at people who don’t treat them with respect.
A mother elephant uses her trunk to stroke and gently comfort her baby. The trunks of Asian elephants are particularly adept, and can be used for complex tasks, even lifting a single blade of grass.
An elephant’s trunk is arguably the most sensitive organ of any mammal. They have incredible olfactory senses, using scents to find a mate, identify family members, and source food and water. They can smell water sources up to 12 miles away.
Support these awe-inspiring creatures with your purchase of Black Ivory Coffee
Elephant habitats and social responsibility
Black Ivory Coffee is fully committed to sustainable and ethical practices, underpinned by genuine care and concern for our community of elephants and their caregivers in northeastern Thailand. Every purchase helps support the local community, providing income and employment to the families who care for the elephants, as well as the students hired for after-school work. Our aim is to have a positive impact on the local community.
Every step of our coffee’s journey – from production to harvest – sustains livelihoods, fosters education, and promotes the wellbeing of our beloved elephants, their caretakers, and their families.
Black Ivory Coffee allows our mahouts to work with the elephants in ways that benefit everyone, allowing these gentle giants to escape the often difficult life of an elephant working in the tourism industry. Instead, our elephants are able to walk and swim in the fresh air, and be social with other elephants. They also get a rich and varied diet, as well as plenty of attention from their carers.
Supporting our Mahouts
We directly support the care of our elephants and contribute to essential expenses for our workers, such as healthcare, education, and savings for future endeavours, including university fees. We are committed to providing more than a fair price per kilogram for the coffee picked, ensuring that our community thrives.
Beyond economic support, we have created an after-school programme that empowers high school students in the villages through hands-on experience in coffee harvesting and processing, and generous compensation for their work. Our students play an integral role in the care and production of Black Ivory Coffee, ensuring the well-being of our elephants while also securing their own educational future.
We are deeply invested in the youth of our community, offering scholarships to deserving students to support their education and empowerment.
Read more about our environmental and social responsibility
“Elephant coffee” vs kopi luwak coffee
The excellent treatment of the elephants at Black Ivory Coffee is a clear differentiator between our coffee and some brands of Kopi Luwak coffee. Kopi Luwak coffee is refined by civets instead of elephants. While many Kopi Luwak coffee producers use ethical standards of production, others have been accused of mistreating their animals, holding the civets in small cages, with harsh conditions. Some may even force-feed or overfeed them coffee cherries. Our elephants are given a varied diet, with coffee cherries as an additional snack – luckily these fruits happen to be one of the elephants’ favourite snacks in the wild.
Both elephant coffee and Kopi Luwak coffee use stomach enzymes and bio-fermentation to enhance coffee flavour – but the elephants’ long fermentation process is particularly effective in creating a pleasant and aromatic coffee.
Read more about “elephant coffee” vs Kopi Luwak coffee
Why is the Arabica coffee bean so prized?
Elephants are only part of the story of Black Ivory Coffee. The coffee cherries the elephants eat are the fruits of the Coffea arabica plant, a highly prized source of coffee beans, known for smooth and complex flavours. Arabica coffee was introduced to Thailand in the twentieth century, and strongly promoted in the Royal Project initiatives of the 1970s, as the King encouraged farmers to grow fruit trees and other crops instead of poppies for the opium trade.
Arabica is typically grown in the high-altitude regions of Northern Thailand, with cooler temperatures and rich soil. Thai farmers typically rely on traditional artisanal cultivation methods, passed down through the generations. These farms are often small-scale or family farms, where workers hand-pick the coffee cherries, ensuring the optimal ripeness and quality.
Many local young farmers are experimenting with different varietals, on a quest to optimise the flavour of their crop. They are including some hard-to-grow but extremely flavourful varietals like Typica (originally from Yemen via Java), Bourbon (Red and Yellow), and Geisha (which originated in Ethiopia, then moved to Panama, then Thailand). Black Ivory Founder Blake Dinkin is passionate about coffee, and is always exploring new potential varietals, to make Black Ivory the most delicious and unique coffee experience.