This coffee, one of the most expensive in the world, is obtained from the droppings of a bird, a cousin of the chicken.
Coffee made from excrement? Yes, and it is also said to be among the best in the world. Many coffee lovers have already heard of these organic coffees – that’s an understatement – called “predigested coffees”. They come from the droppings of certain animals, coffee lovers, and whose digestive system is said to magnify the aromas of the beans they ingest. Hard to believe? Yet it is true, these coffees are now among the most famous and exclusive, but by extension they are expensive, very expensive, sometimes you have to pay several hundred euros for a kilo of coffee.
In Thailand, coffee producers source their coffee from elephant droppings. In India, farmers harvest coffee cherries spat out by certain monkeys, the Rhesus macaques, whose saliva ferments the coffee beans. In other Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, coffee producers collect coffee beans digested by civet cats to sell them. When it comes to luxury coffee, however, these three types of coffee are outclassed by another of the same type, a coffee extracted from the droppings of a bird: the Variegated Penelope or Jacu.
For several decades, Brazil, the world’s leading coffee producer, had to deal with this bird from Central America, a cousin of the chicken, remarkable for its black feathers that only highlight the scarlet red of its eyes and throat. The bird is in fact very fond of coffee cherries, which it picks from coffee trees. Everything changed when farmers discovered that not only did the coffee beans remain intact once evacuated by the Jacu, but that its digestive system also brought out the noblest aromas of coffee.
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The “Jacu Bird” with its very fruity, full-bodied, and sweet taste is, according to specialists, incomparable. To taste it, however, you have to put your hand in your wallet, some resellers charge 1600 euros per kilo. A surprising price since the producer no longer has to select the beans or pick them. He just has to collect the excrement and wash the beans before drying them and offering them for sale. The price is actually explained by the rarity of the product. Only a few hundred kilos are produced each year. In France, it is possible to find it in a few rare online coffee shops but you sometimes have to pay several hundred euros for just a few cups.
Note that if you want to enjoy this coffee with notes of chocolate and nuts, you must also be ready to buy the right equipment. Forget the Italian coffee maker, the espresso machine and the French press. You will have to prepare it using a manual preparation method like the good old “Chemex” or with a “V60” but it is the guarantee of enjoying this coffee in the best possible way and getting value for your money.