Coffee is one of the world’s most popular drinks. Like alcohol, it's been around for centuries. It’s still enjoyed by various cultures across the world.
For those who love coffee, there’s Robusta, Arabica, Liberica and Excelsa.
Coffee lovers know how to tell them apart and for the mere mortals like us, it's just a filter coffee or a cappuccino. I’m keeping things very simple because for the gods, this is more like coffee 101 or coffee for dummies.
There are numerous coffee brands such as Starbucks, Seattle Coffee, Jacobs, Nescafe, Douwe Egberts, Antigua, Frisco and Ricoffy. I’m not a connoisseur. However, I will admit, they are different, and they do not taste the same.
Brazil is the world’s top coffee producer, followed by Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia and Ethiopia. Don’t worry, South Africa is not on this list, although we can grow coffee in provinces like Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal (just putting it out there).
So let me get straight to the point because I’m actually excited to share what the world’s most expensive coffee is derived from. But wait, let’s first name the top five most expensive coffees. Well, there’s Molokai Coffee, Saint Helena, Finca El Injerto, Black Ivory and Kopi Luwak.
Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for:
The top two world’s most expensive coffees are Black Ivory and Kopi Luwak. Black Ivory, which costs $1,500 (R23 900) per pound, is made to go through the digestive tracts (stomachs) of elephants, whereby the coffee is activated by a particular family of enzymes that make the beans incredibly smooth and flavourful.
On the other hand, Kopi Luwak is created through a process whereby civets eat coffee cherries and pass them through their faeces. Yes, the world’s most expensive brews are made from animal faecal matter.
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