Japanese Brewery Makes Dark Stout Using Coffee Beans Plucked From Elephant Dung

SanktGallen Brewery in Japan has brewed up a batch of Un, Kono Kuro, a dark stout made with coffee beans picked out of elephant dung. The process to get these specialty beans is a time-consuming one: raw beans are fed to Thai elephants (who live at a sanctuary), the beans are then allowed time to ‘process’ inside the elephant, eventually they are plucked out of piles of dung by women and children, and these beans make the coffee that is used to make the brewery’s unusual beer. The beer sold out very quickly but RocketNews24 got hold of some and taste tested it.

Here’s part of their report:

…I cracked open a bottle of Un, Kono Kuro to give it a try. I sniffed at the bottle’s neck and my nostrils were greeted with a faint bitter aroma, a little like roasted coffee just giving me a sense of what’s to come.

When I poured it into a glass the coffee-like aroma continued to build it was relaxing like an easy Sunday morning. After taking my first sip there was an initial bitterness that got washed over by a wave of sweetness. Following that, a mellow body rolled in and spread out through my mouth…

After downing the last drop, slowly rising from my throat and mouth was that afterglow. The combination of bitter and sweet stayed fresh and lingered in my head. It was a familiar aroma that accompanied me through the entire beer.

For some time after I could still feel as if my body was saturated with that warm scent.