The most expensive coffee is harvested from bird poop
We guess they can't say their poop stinks, now can they?
What started off as a problem, quickly became a blessing in disguise.
The owner of the coffee farm, Camocim Coffee in Brazil, Henrique Sloper, found the turkey-like Jacu birds as a hindrance to his coffee plantation.
After calling on environmental protection agencies for help, and being unable to apply their suggestions, he decided to take on a different approach.
Surprisingly, he found the invasion of the Jacu birds to be a blessing in disguise.
Read more: Breastmilk lattes, anyone?
Sloper is an avid coffee connoisseur and decided to apply the same logic used with kopi luwak, the world's most expensive and exclusive coffee.
A coffee that is "harvested from the faeces of Asian palm civets and it has become internationally famous for its smoothness and aroma. Sloper knew this very well, and because the Jacu birds on his farm were there to stay, he decided to create his kopi luwak…" (Oddity Central)
The biggest challenge was to convince his employees to harvest the Jacu bird's poop instead of the coffee beans.
Which, as you can imagine, took some convincing. But after overcoming this hurdle, and experimenting with the idea, Comocim Farm has become the only one in the world to "produce coffee from the droppings of the Jacu bird".
For more from East Coast Radio
Sloper discovered that the Jacu bird's digestive system was extraordinary.
"Although it swallowed and excreted the coffee beans perfectly whole, the birds’ digestion eliminated almost all of the caffeine in the beans as well as the need for fermentation. Furthermore, the bird seemed to have impeccable taste in coffee, consuming only the ripest beans on the plantation, which pretty much ensured that the coffee harvested from its droppings was of the highest quality." (Oddity Central)
The harvested beans are so exclusive that they are only produced when in demand from a buyer. Popular in countries like France, Japan, and the UK, where it retails for nearly R35,000 per kilogram.
Would you pay that much for the world's most expensive coffee?
Image Courtesy of Pexels