image creditCoffee snobs who rave about ridiculously expensive 'pre-digested' Kopi Luwak civet coffee now have something new to turn their noses up at: Black Ivory coffee! Costing upwards of $1,100 per kilo ($500 per pound), this exceptionally rare brew is made from coffee beans eaten and excreted by elephants.
It's not a dumb idea if you think about it: palm civets are scrawny little beasts who can barely eat more than a couple of coffee beans at a sitting. Elephants, on the other hand, down entire coffee bushes in a single bite. They also excrete jumbo-sized clumps of fibrous waste that's easy to find, process and disassemble.
