from the getting-to-the-bottom-of-the-flavor-notes dept.
With hundreds of millions of cups consumed every day, coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Many organic molecules combine to give coffee its flavor, and nearly every coffee drinker likes a different flavor profile that is "just theirs." The food industry has developed many ways of processing coffee beans to alter the ratios of these molecules and create the unique flavors consumers can enjoy.
One particularly interesting process involves passing coffee beans through the digestive tracts of animals. An emerging example is Black Ivory coffee (BIC). BIC is made in only one elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Asian elephants are fed Arabica coffee cherries, and beans collected from their dung are processed for human consumption. BIC is prized for its smooth, chocolaty flavor, and it is less bitter than regular coffee.
[...] The team analyzed fresh dung from elephants producing BIC, as well as from control elephants living in the same elephant sanctuary. The only difference in their diets is that BIC-producing elephants received an additional snack of bananas, rice bran, and whole coffee cherries. Any differences in the content and composition of fecal microbes would be due to this snack.
Yamada's team found that BIC-producing elephants' dung was unusually rich in pectin-digesting enzymes. 16S ribosomal RNA analysis showed that these elephants also had a more diverse gut microbiome, with an abundance of Acinetobacter and other pectin-digesting species. "Interestingly, Acinetobacter has also been detected on the surface of coffee beans. This suggests that ingestion of coffee beans may lead to the colonization of specific microbes in the gut of elephants," remarks Yamada.
Pectin in coffee beans is partially broken down by the heat of roasting and seems to form bitter-tasting compounds such as 2-furfuryl furan. Previous studies showed that BIC had much lower levels of 2-furfuryl furan than regular coffee beans. These earlier findings appear to be explained by the discovery of pectin-digesting bacteria in the gut of BIC-producing elephants. Since pectin is partially digested as the beans pass through the elephants' guts, there is less available to form 2-furfuryl furan when the beans are roasted.
"Our findings may highlight a potential molecular mechanism by which the gut microbiota of BIC elephants contributes to the flavor of BIC," says Yamada as he describes these exciting findings. "Further experimental validation is required to test this hypothesis, such as a biochemical analysis of coffee bean components before and after passage through the elephant's digestive tract," he adds, pointing to avenues for future research into this technique for processing coffee.
Nevertheless, this study provides a foundation for further exploration of animal-microbiome interactions in food fermentation and flavor development. Continued research into specific microbial metabolic mechanisms may support the development of diverse and distinctive flavor profiles in the future!
Journal Reference: Chiba, N., Limviphuvadh, V., Ng, C.H. et al. Preliminary study of gut microbiome influence on Black Ivory Coffee fermentation in Asian elephants. Sci Rep 15, 40548 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-24196-0
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday February 05, @09:50AM
2-furfuryl furan
Once more, put them back in and say that again.
Sorry, but the concept of poo coffee is disgusting, by the way.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 05, @09:53AM (1 child)
Next time a critic says someone's coffee tastes like $#!7, they may be paying a complibebment?
Actually, some people have a taste for fecal matter. Although I find the matter repulsive, I do note that when Mom used to cook up a pot of rutabaga, a smell like serious intestinal upset permeated the house, and the rutabagas were quite tasty.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday February 05, @10:18AM
There's also dried parmesan cheese that some people sprinkle on their food. It smells like vomit (butyric acid and isovaleric acid).
This is why Europeans don't like Hershey chocolate, as it has elevated levels of butyric acid compared to chocolate made in Europe. There are historical reasons for this difference, which is now deliberately induced as part of the choice of ingredients and the manufacturing process.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Snospar on Thursday February 05, @11:24AM
I have a strong aversion to coffee, you insensitive clod!
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 05, @02:31PM (2 children)
IIRC, the fancy coffee is from civet shit, so why are they using elephants? Even if it works, that would seem to be an extremely expensive approach.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 05, @03:39PM
Volume! One load of elephant dung can fill bags of coffee!
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Thursday February 05, @04:28PM
Perhaps it is a Veblen good [wikipedia.org]: the visible expense is the point.
On the other hand, given how much people pay for expensive wine for small increments in quality/flavour, it is possible that the difference in flavour is tangible in a way that people are prepared to pay a premium for, even if it is not conspicuous consumption.
From my point of view, I would be interested to try such coffee, as I like a 'well-rounded' coffee flavour; and I do not like very acid, or very bitter coffee, or coffee that has been sat on a hotplate for far too long. I feel the same about chili peppers: I don't like the flavour of habanero peppers, but quite like smoked jalapeño, and birds-eye/Thai peppers (I'll use two or three of those in a dish when cooking for two people). Similarly for chocolate: I've had some sublime 99% plain chocolate, and overly bitter 70%.
If it is a way of financing elephant sanctuaries, I'm all for it, and indeed other threatened species - perhaps there should be a whole line of coffees, one per species.
(Score: 2) by Zoot on Friday February 06, @04:51AM
I suspect this (Elephant-processed beans) is just something dreamed up by the Elephant sanctuary to sell to tourists at $100 a cup.
I am qualified to have an opinion on this, because I have actually drunk a cup of Elephant poo coffee (though unfortunately via a box of PODs Amazon gave me in exchange for a Review, not actually in Thailand).
It tasted like coffee.