For a while, the coffee news was filled with talk of civet cat coffee.

Did you hear about it?

Civet cats (creatures which are a bit like ferrets) have something of a nose for a decent coffee cherry.

The coffee producers let their civet cats choose and eat the best berries and then they (ahem) harvest them from the animal’s faeces.

The coffee bean is then cleaned and roasted and made into coffee which has claimed high prices on the global coffee market.

However, it seems that the civet cat has been trumped by the elephant in terms of creating the most expensive coffee, by going through the animal’s digestive system.

This new elephant coffee is used in a brand called Black Ivory Coffee.

A businessman from Canada has been credited with kickstarting this idea.

The dung from around twenty elephants in a sanctuary are fed to the creatures so that they can subsequently be harvested and turned into coffee, in a similar way to the civet cat version.

What does it taste like?

According to reports, elephant coffee has a ‘smooth and earthy’ flavour.

And the cost?

Whereas civet cat coffee could fetch up to $320 per pound, the Black Ivory Coffee is said to fetch an eye-watering $500 per pound.