Is Elephant Dung Coffee Really Delicious? Introduction to the Origin of Elephant Dung Coffee - How Much Does a Cup Cost?

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

The Fascinating World of Exotic Coffees

Most people know coffee, but what about civet coffee and elephant dung coffee? What makes them so special, and how do their flavors differ?

Understanding Civet Coffee

Civet coffee refers to raw beans that have passed through the civet's digestive system after the animal eats fresh coffee cherries and digests the pulp and skin. A freshly picked coffee cherry is made up, from outside in, of the exocarp, mesocarp, endocarp, silver skin (seed coat) and endosperm. Because the endocarp is extremely hard, a civet can only digest the outer layers, including the exocarp and pulp. The coffee we drink every day is processed from the innermost endosperm alone. The processing of raw coffee includes depulping, demucilaging, dehydrating and drying, and hulling; in this sequence the civet performs the depulping and demucilaging. The silver skin also separates from the endosperm during roasting, under heat, and never reaches the cup.

Civet coffee is not merely a matter of borrowing the civet's depulping and demucilaging. Civets naturally love to eat coffee cherries and select fruit with fully ripe red skin — which happens to match the requirement that high-quality coffee use fully ripe cherries. In addition, while the cherries sit in the civet's intestinal tract, the temperature and humidity conditions allow fermentation by the animal's gut microbiota. This promotes a better balance of the overall aromatic components during later roasting — a point articulated precisely by researchers from the National University of Singapore in their paper. Civets also have an aromatic gland sac that lends a certain aroma-enhancing effect to the coffee. Today, though, most civet coffee on the market comes from farmed civets, obtained by feeding them coffee beans and then collecting and processing the result centrally.

The Unique Flavor of Civet Coffee

How does civet coffee actually differ in taste from regular coffee? The National University of Singapore published a research paper on civet coffee suggesting its flavor is superior to regular coffee. The authors found that Indonesian Sidikalang civet coffee was more popular than the other three types, thanks to its good overall flavor balance, even though its flavors were similar to those of regular Sidikalang coffee. Meanwhile, Thailand's Doi Chang coffee and China's Yunnan coffee have distinct sulfur flavors, containing sulfur compounds reaching 8.32 mg/kg and 12.63 mg/kg respectively. Sulfur flavor matters greatly to coffee quality: good coffee is often grown near volcanic craters, where the volcanic rock is rich in sulfur, and sulfur compounds take part in reactions that generate numerous coffee flavor substances.

Elephant Dung Coffee

Besides civet coffee, there is also elephant dung coffee. As a novelty it was probably inspired by civet coffee. Based on research-paper retrieval results, no studies reporting on the flavor of elephant dung coffee have been found to date. There is only one report about wild elephants in western India destroying local coffee plantations, where the author even used the term "human-elephant conflict," writing from the perspective of harmonious coexistence between elephants and people.

Scientific Analysis of Elephant Dung Coffee Claims

The popular online explanation — that elephant dung coffee undergoes enzymatic breakdown of proteins in the coffee beans through the elephant's digestive system, resulting in a non-bitter taste with aromas of milk chocolate, nuts, red berries and subtle spices — struggles to withstand scientific scrutiny. First, the endocarp of a coffee cherry is extremely hard, and like the civet, an elephant cannot digest it. Therefore any breakdown of the proteins in the endosperm protected by that endocarp is minimal. If elephants could digest coffee endocarps, people would not be able to pick out complete coffee beans from their droppings. Second, proteins are not a substance that harms coffee flavor; on the contrary, they are important precursors of coffee flavor compounds. During roasting, proteins break down into peptides or amino acids. Proteins and other nitrogen-containing compounds such as peptides, amino acids and trigonelline undergo Maillard reactions with reducing sugars, acids and quinones to generate amino-acid-aldehyde and amino-ketone flavor substances. The effect of an elephant digesting the pulp and skin on protein-related flavor generation is negligible next to the flavors produced by protein reactions during high-temperature roasting. Numerous authoritative studies have already shown that protein-related reactions during roasting generate large amounts of flavor compounds. Although melanoidins taste bitter, they also have antioxidant properties and provide health benefits.

Factors Affecting Coffee Flavor

Many factors shape coffee flavor, chiefly the variety, the origin, the raw-bean processing method, the roasting method (degree), the storage method after roasting, and the grinding method. High-altitude Arabica coffees are of higher quality than low-altitude Robusta — something countless laboratories have scientifically proven. Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta producer, and its raw-bean trade price is roughly only 2/3 that of Arabica from high-altitude origins elsewhere, which reflects the same quality difference.

Geographical Distribution of Exotic Coffees

The most famous civet coffee comes from Indonesia, and the most famous elephant dung coffee from Thailand. Why have famous civet and elephant dung coffees not emerged from Brazil and Colombia, the world's leading Arabica producers? The reason is worth exploring. Low-altitude Robusta has heavy, earthy, musty flavors that are considered defects. Regions in Southeast Asia have a way of roasting coffee with added sugar (some also add butter), known in Western countries as Torrefacto roasting. That method boosts the reactions that generate flavor compounds and can to some extent mask undesirable flavors. Some areas of China also blend cheap Robusta with Arabica for roasting, adding sugar during the process. Low-altitude areas are unsuited to growing Arabica, yet coffee remains an important cash crop there. China's Yunnan coffee, by contrast, is high-altitude coffee of excellent quality, much favored by large domestic and international processors, mainly for instant coffee sold in supermarkets or traditional ground coffee for cafés in large and medium-sized cities.

Conclusion: Beyond Novelty

Whether civet coffee or elephant dung coffee, both may satisfy curiosity, but in reality raw beans that pass through an animal's digestive system easily exceed microbiological standards. Although the later roasting reaches around 200°C, enough to kill microorganisms, certain safety risks remain. That the consumer price of civet or elephant dung coffee rivals luxury goods is worth pondering — there is no shortage of hype and gimmickry from the producers behind it.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Novelties aside, what actually decides a good cup is the roast, and for most drinkers a balanced medium roast is the most rewarding place to settle. FrontStreet Coffee's rule of thumb is simple: the darker the roast, the more bitter and heavy the cup, and the lighter the roast, the more acidic and delicate it becomes — so if you are chasing balance, start with a medium roast.

FrontStreet's Brazil Queen Estate is the classic example. Grown in the world's largest coffee-producing country from the distinctive yellow Bourbon variety, it is bright and gently sweet, showing cream, peanut, chocolate, toasted bread and sugarcane after a medium roast, and it works equally well as a pour-over, in a moka pot or on an espresso machine.

For a sweeter, fruitier medium roast, FrontStreet points to Strawberry Candy, its Geisha blend that pairs honey-processed Costa Rican coffee with washed Panamanian Geisha; the medium roast keeps both the orange-blossom honey and a rounded sweetness, and it suits cold brew, pour-over and espresso alike. FrontStreet's 2013 Yunnan Typica, roasted medium to preserve its balanced, gentle character, brings nut, brown sugar, black tea and dried apricot, while Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is roasted medium so that acidity, bitterness, sweetness and body fuse into the chocolate, roasted nut, cream and caramel profile that has made it so widely loved.