World’s Rarest Coffee: Black Ivory Coffee
We’ve briefly discussed some of the worlds most expensive coffee’s, but I’ve only recently come across some rather less perturbing types of rare and expensive coffee’s. Today, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to the most elite of the elite. Black Ivory Coffee. Remember that name, and take in everything I am about to tell you about this better-than-gold coffee.
Note to self and fellow readers: Your regular coffee may seem dull after simply reading this. We take no responsibility for activating your taste buds far beyond control 🙂
Black Ivory Coffee: The Rarest
First things first. Black Ivory Coffee is not only the rarest, most expensive coffee globally. In fact, it’s one of the most uniquely harvested coffees. See, the other most popular coffee is made by the Kopi Luwak – a small mammal who ingests raw coffee beans, which ferment throughout it’s digestive tract. These beans are excreted and removed from it’s faeces – then roasted.
The process is somewhat similar here.
Thai elephants, which have been street rescued by the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Northern Thailand naturally “refine” these coffee beans. The process begins in selection of the finest, highest rated Thai Arabica coffee beans that have been picked from exceptional altitudes. See, elephants have a naturally distinct advantage over us. They can reach pretty darn high with their trunks and all. So this coffee contains literally zero “low hanging fruits”.
Once the coffee beans are “deposited” by the elephants, the beans are extracted from the cherry cover and hand picked by the Mahouts (elephant keepers). The beans are naturally sun-dried and then medium roasted. This process has been seen in similar instances, like with Kopi Luwaks and Civet Cats. However, with more people catching on to the monetary value of these types of coffee’s, often times the animals are exploited; locked in cages and forced to ingest beans – the list is endless. However, Black Ivory Coffee certifies that all elephants are treated humanely, allowed to roam calmly while ingesting the beans and are cared for by an on-site veterinarian, 24 hours a day.
Here’s the shocker, though: It takes approximately close on 9000 coffee beans to roast one kilogram of this liquid gold. This equates to roughly 33 kilograms of coffee cherries required to produce a single kilogram!
Coffee Preparation: The Devil Is In The Detail
Whilst reading through the fascinating story of how the beans are harvested, where the initiative began – and being informed that only 150kg of this brilliant bean will be produced in 2015 – I was not entirely shocked to hear that the allocated amount for the year has already been sold out. Black Ivory Coffee is prioritised for distribution to 5-star hotels, mainly in Thailand and surrounds. A starter pack, with only enough beans to prepare 5 Espresso-sized cups, will set you back around $66 (just over R 1 000.00). That’s R 200.00 per Espresso-sized cup. Yup…
Anyway – back to the topic. The preparation of this coffee is as vitally important as the harvesting and roasting of the bean itself. In an effort to not misinterpret anything – or miscommunicate the detailed and delicate brewing process – I have curated directly from BlackIvoryCoffee.com‘s website :
1) Upon opening the exterior package you will find inside a foil pack. Tear this open and pour the Black Ivory Coffee beans into the manual grinder. Notice the light brown colour (as opposed to black and oily) of the beans. This is medium roast. This roast level allows you to taste the true character of the beans without it being overpowered with a burnt taste associated with espresso. Open the foil pack and breathe in the fresh aroma. Pay attention to the floral and chocolate notes.
2) Pour the beans into the grinder. The grind is set to medium fine (think granulated sugar particles). The sound of roasted beans being ground will last roughly 1.5 minutes and after twenty seconds you will begin to smell the freshly ground coffee. You may notice that the aroma has changed from the whole bean as you may pick up some of the spice notes.
3) Place the ground coffee powder into the glass jar and inside you will notice a cloth filter. Cloth not paper is used because paper contains chlorine which negatively affects the taste of the coffee. Cloth is also more porous and so the coffee liquor will more easily pass through the filter. This will result in a more flavourful cup of coffee.
4) Add 360 ML of hot water to the copper kettle. The kettle will move upward and the burner lid will need to be pulled back so that it sits on the outside of the kettle. Light the wick. Now real show begins.
5) As the water heats, steam will be created. The temperature will be 93 degrees C. This is the ideal temperature for coffee extraction. A low temperature makes it difficult to pull all of the flavour out of the bean while too high a temperature will burn off the coffee essence and lead to over-extraction. As the water turns to steam it will move into the copper kettle, the decreased weight of the copper kettle will allow the kettle to rise. The lid of the burner will then slips away and fall on top of the flame to extinguish it.
6) Very little activity will be noticed for the first two minutes but then moisture will gather on the bottom of the glass under the coffee powder, steam will begin to swirl and then like a volcano, the contents of the glass will rise up about 3/4 the length of the glass. The smell of brewed coffee will begin to waif.
7) Once the coffee rises to the 3/4 height, you will see a pause and then a vacuum will form in the copper kettle and the coffee will be sucked back through the cloth filter, across the copper pipe and into the copper kettle. Black Ivory Coffee is just about ready.
8) Unscrew the knob at the top of the kettle to release the pressure and then turn the spivet. The coffee will flow out. At this point the temperature of the coffee will be 75 degrees C. However, the ideal drinking temperature is 65-70 degrees C. Take a few minutes to take in the aroma. If you drink the coffee while it is too hot the dominant note will be grass. After a couple of minutes the coffee will cool sufficiently so that the grass notes will fade, and dark chocolate will be apparent. The body will become more pronounced.
9) Roll the coffee to the sides of the tongue and notice the flavor. You should easily taste: dark chocolate, a hint of grass, spice (particularly tobacco, leather and cinnamon depending on the water you use) and it will be very soft, almost tea-like without the burnt or bitter taste of espresso. Your palette will not be dry and you should have a finish / after-taste that is clean and sweet.
I can almost feel the passion it takes to make a pot of this otherworldly nectar.
What would you do to get your hands on a cup of this magical coffee? Have you already tried it?
Share your rare coffee experiences with us 🙂
