Black Ivory Coffee: The Story of Elephant Coffee

Few coffees get a reaction like this one. Black Ivory Coffee is made from Arabica cherries that elephants in northern Thailand eat, digest and pass; workers then pick the beans out of the dung, wash, dry and roast them. Launched by Canadian entrepreneur Blake Dinkin and first sold in 2012, it was priced at around $1,100 per kilogram, or about $50 a cup in luxury hotels at the time, which made headlines worldwide.

Is it a gimmick, a genuinely different coffee or both? Here is the full story, from the elephant’s stomach to the cup, with the questions worth asking before you pay for it.

Key takeaways

• Black Ivory Coffee comes from Thai Arabica cherries eaten by elephants, with beans recovered from their dung.
• Early reports said 33 kg of cherries were needed for 1 kg of coffee; the company now cites about 20 kg, and annual output is only a few hundred pounds.
• The founder’s theory is that fermentation in the elephant’s gut changes the bean; this has not been independently established.
• Rarity and labor, more than taste alone, explain the price.

In this article

1. What is Black Ivory Coffee?
2. How it is made
3. Why it is so expensive
4. What it tastes like
5. Animal welfare and ethics
6. FAQ

What is Black Ivory Coffee?

Black Ivory is often called “elephant dung coffee.” It was developed by Blake Dinkin, a Canadian who had previously worked with civet coffee. In 2012, Associated Press reports described a herd of about 20 elephants at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Rai province, near the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Dinkin said he had spent $300,000 developing the coffee, and that 8% of sales went toward the herd’s healthcare.

The first batch, 70 kg, sold out, initially through a few luxury resorts in Thailand, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi.

How Black Ivory Coffee is made

1. Harvest. Ripe Thai Arabica cherries are picked.
2. Feeding. The cherries are mixed into the elephants’ food.
3. Digestion. The cherries pass through the elephant’s digestive tract. Reports give 15 to 30 hours; the company’s own site gives 12 to 72 hours.
4. Collection. Handlers and their families pick the beans out of the dung by hand. Many beans are chewed, broken or lost in tall grass.
5. Cleaning. The remaining fruit skin is removed right away and the beans are thoroughly washed.
6. Drying. Beans are sun-dried.
7. Sorting and roasting. Damaged beans are removed and the rest are roasted.

What happens inside the elephant?

Elephants are herbivores with long digestive systems that ferment plant material. Dinkin’s theory, as he told reporters, is that a natural fermentation process in the elephant’s gut, along with stomach acid breaking down proteins in the bean, changes its flavor and reduces bitterness. That is a plausible hypothesis, but it is the producer’s explanation rather than a finding from published, independent research. Treat it as a theory, not a proven fact.

Fermentation shaping flavor is a familiar idea in coffee processing, from natural and honey processes to anaerobic methods; see our guide to anaerobic coffee for a controlled, animal-free version.

Why Black Ivory Coffee is so expensive

Put the numbers in perspective

Using the early ratio, 33 kg of cherries for 1 kg of coffee means the elephants process roughly 33 times the finished weight. By comparison, conventional processing typically needs somewhere around 5 to 6 kg of cherries for 1 kg of green coffee. Even at the company’s current figure of about 20 kg, that is several times more fruit per kilo, before any premium for rarity.

What does Black Ivory Coffee taste like?

The company describes notes of chocolate, tamarind and spices, and the brand has long promoted it as smooth and low in bitterness. Diners interviewed in 2012 were often surprised to like it. Without blind tastings against the same coffee processed normally, it is hard to separate the elephant’s effect from the effects of variety, roasting, careful handling and expectation.

If you want to explore how far processing can push flavor, compare a fruity natural with a clean washed coffee; our guide to coffee processing methods explains why they taste so different.

Animal welfare and ethics

Animal-processed coffees deserve scrutiny. Civet coffee in particular has drawn criticism for caged animals fed cherries in large quantities. Black Ivory has taken a different public stance: in 2012, the foundation’s director of elephants said that, as far as they could tell, there was no harm to the elephants, and Dinkin said veterinary blood tests on zoo elephants showed they did not absorb caffeine from raw coffee cherries.

Questions worth asking about any animal-processed coffee:

• Are the animals kept in good welfare conditions, with veterinary care and natural diets?
• Is the coffee only a small part of their diet?
• Does the producer publish how much money goes to the animals and the community?
• Is there independent oversight?

Rare flavor without the price tag

You don’t need $50 a cup to taste something unusual. Ethiopia Natural, sun-dried in the cherry, brings ripe fruit, milk chocolate and caramel. Whiskey Barrel Aged rests 30 days in a bourbon barrel for oak, vanilla and caramel notes (with no alcohol), and Bali Blue is deep and syrupy with dark chocolate and molasses. All are roasted 1–5 days before delivery.

Black Ivory Coffee FAQ

Is Black Ivory Coffee safe to drink?

The beans are cleaned, dried and roasted at high temperatures, as with any coffee. As with all specialty products, buy from the official producer or authorized sellers.

Where is Black Ivory Coffee made?

In northern Thailand, originally at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Rai province.

Is Black Ivory Coffee the same as kopi luwak?

No. Kopi luwak passes through civets, small mammals; Black Ivory passes through elephants, whose digestion is slower and plant-based.

Do the elephants get caffeine from the cherries?

According to the founder, veterinary blood tests showed the elephants did not absorb caffeine from raw cherries.

Sources

1. Associated Press via Fox News. Coffee from an elephant’s dung fills a $50 cup, 2012. foxnews.com.
2. Black Ivory Coffee. Why is elephant refined coffee the rarest coffee on earth? blackivorycoffee.com.

Facts checked in October 2026.

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