VietNamNet Bridge – Discovering that domestic elephants like to eat ripened coffee beans, a farmer in Dak Lak province, the Central Highlands of Vietnam, researched to produce his own specialty – elephant coffee, which is sold for VND1.5 to VND2 million ($70-$100) a kilo.

Foreign tourists are interested in elephant coffee.

After years of taking tamed elephants into the forest to seek food, Dang Nang Long in Lien Son Town, Lak District, Dak Lak province, the land of domestic elephants in Vietnam, discovered that elephants like eating ripened coffee beans.

By chance, in 2012, he and his wife traveled to Thailand and saw Thai people selling elephant coffee, which was priced up to $1,000 to $1,500/kg. Long had the idea of producing elephant coffee in his hometown, based on two advantages: he owns the largest herd of domestic elephants in the Central Highlands and the Highlands is a land for coffee trees.

Long also believed that producing elephant coffee could help preserve domestic elephants and earn extra income.

Long’s wife - Nguyen Thi Thu Ba - said her family bought tons of fresh ripe coffee beans to feed their elephants but the animals refused to eat. The couple was so worried but then they found out that the coffee grower sprayed chemicals to stimulate coffee beans to ripen simultaneously. They had to purchase fresh coffee beans that naturally ripened to feed their elephants.

According to Ba, each elephant can eat 20-50 kg of coffee beans per meal. For each 30 kg of fresh coffee beans the elephant eats, he will discharge 9 kg of elephant coffee beans after two days.

To create the unique taste of elephant coffee, a few days before feeding elephants with coffee beans, the animals will be fed with pineapple, sugarcane, and bananas. Ba explained that many eating many kinds of fruits will create a special enzyme to give coffee a unique flavor.

After two days of fermentation in the stomach, elephants are taken into the forest to relieve themselves. Workers will wear gloves to pick coffee beans from elephant dung. The beans will be washed with mineral water and wine. Then they will be exposed outdoors for one day and one night to absorb sunlight and dew.

When the beans are completely dry, workers roast and grind them to make the finished product.

The coffee beans must be roasted in cast iron pans, with chicken fat (fat for roasting coffee beans must be from eviscerated cocks). Each 10 kg of elephant coffee beans yield 1.5 kg of finished coffee beans.

Long said the prices for 1kg of elephant coffee are from VND1.2 to VND2 million, within the meaning of the "gift" contributing to the conservation of domestic elephants.

In early 2015, the Intellectual Property Bureau of Vietnam granted the elephant coffee brand registration certificate for Long. In early 2016, Long will distribute his products throughout the country through agents.