• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

lifestyle THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2015 Features An employee serving cups of Black Ivory Coffee at the luxury Anantara resort, An employee preparing Black Ivory Coffee for German tourists Gerd and Roasted coffee beans extracted from elephant dung. home to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation. — AFP photos Barbara Schautz. Expensive espresso: Thailand’s elephant dung coffee n the lush, green hills of northern Thailand, a woman mahouts are paid for collecting beans and eight percent of painstakingly picks coffee beans out of a pile of elephant the sale price is donated to the foundation, helping to pay for Idung, an essential part of making one the world’s most veterinary treatment and facilities for the animals. expensive beverages. This remote corner of Thailand border- ing Myanmar and Laos is better known for drug smuggling than coffee, but Blake Dinkin decided it was perfect for a legit- imate enterprise that blends conservation with business. “When I explained my project to the mahouts (elephant rid- ers), I know that they thought I was crazy,” the 44-year-old Canadian founder of Black Ivory Coffee, which uses the diges- tive tract of elephants to create a high-end brew for coffee connoisseurs. Initially, he considered using civet cats to make “kopi luwak” coffee, which uses beans collected from the droppings of the Asian cats. But the quality of the end product has weak- ened as demand has grown in Southeast Asia including in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Civet cats are also often kept in cages and force-fed beans, a chasm away from Dinkin’s Blake Dinkin, founder of Black Ivory coffee, spreading The wife of a mahout cleaning coffee beans extracted desire to support rather than damage the environment. cleaned coffee beans extracted from elephant dung to dry from elephant dung. Lions and giraffes also made the shortlist of prospective them. coffee filters, but eventually Dinkin settled on elephants after discovering that the creatures sometimes eat coffee during Cleaned coffee beans periods of drought in Southeast Asia. He also teamed up with extracted from an elephant rescue charity which saves the creatures from the elephant dung drying. tourist trade. But making coffee from pachyderm poop was harder than expected. “I thought it would be as simple as tak- ing the beans, giving them to the elephant, and out will come great coffee,” said Dinkin, adding that the initial result was “horrible” and undrinkable. “It took me another nine years to actually succeed in doing what I wanted,” he said. Lose a lot of beans The enzymes in the elephant’s stomach function as a kind of slow cooker, he said, where the coffee beans marinate alongside the herbs and fruits the animal also eats. As the beans work their way through the elephant’s digestive tract-a 17-hour process-the digestive acid takes the bitterness out of the bean. “I lose a lot of beans in the bath in the morning,” he An elephant eating a mixture containing coffee beans. said, explaining that the elephants sometimes defecate in the river while bathing. The mahouts’ wives collect the coffee beans from the elephant dung, before washing and drying Caramel and chocolate them in the sun, a division of labor that is helping to boost the For all the hype, it has yet to win round all coffee lovers. local community’s income. From his Cafe Lomi in Paris, Aleaume Paturle, said the ele- To make a kilo of coffee, the elephants have to have con- phant dung brand is more gimmick than taste sensation. “It’s sumed around 33 kilos of the beans, along with their usual fun but it’s not the best product. To make the best coffee, ration of rice and bananas. But the rewards are worth it. The you’ve got to control fermentation-and when this is happen- rarity of the drink is a key part of its branding. In 2015, their ing in the stomach of an animal, this is harder,” he said. But third successful harvest, Black Ivory produced 150 kilograms even if the beverage’s taste is “a bit inconsistent,” the fact that of coffee. At around $1,880 per kilogram-or $13 for an espres- the beans have passed through an elephant in Thailand gives so-sized cup-it does not come cheap. But riding the “grand the product a romantic appeal that will help sales, he said. At cru” trend for coffee, it is sought after by customers eager to the Anatara hotel in Chiang Saen, where some of the ele- pay sky-high prices for unusual products. Black Ivory coffee phants are based, the precious coffee is prepared in front of will soon be available at high-end establishments in guests in an elegant 19th century French coffee machine. Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen and Moscow. But for now it is “It’s a unique taste,” said Barbara Schautz, a German tourist, sold exclusively at luxury hotels in Asia, mostly in Thailand but adding she could detect notes of caramel and chocolate in also Singapore and Hong Kong. the brew. “It’s not bitter at all.”— AFP John Roberts, the director of the foundation that supports the elephants, which have all been rescued from the tourist trade in Bangkok, was initially skeptical of feeding elephants coffee beans. But he has since warmed to the project. “The caffeine doesn’t come out of the coffee bean until it’s boiled... Mahouts standing by an elephant eating a mixture containing coffee beans. so it’s fine for them to eat it,” he said. In addition, families of North Carolina garden takes inspiration from quilts t’s not uncommon to see floral patterns on quilts. But strong colors, without the need to remove dead blos- how about flowers planted in a quilt pattern? The soms. Plants that don’t grow too tall or fast are also Iquilt garden at the North Carolina Arboretum in important for maintaining the look of the pattern. Asheville is designed to mimic the shapes and colors Weather in the mountains can be cold in spring with full found in traditional quilt block patterns. The quilt theme sun in summer, so the plants must also tolerate late connects the garden to the arts and crafts heritage of frosts and variable temperatures. the Southern Appalachian region, according to Clara Curtis’ advice for home gardeners who might want to Curtis, director of design, events and education at the try a quilt garden is to plant one square, or four squares arboretum. divided by pathways if a larger space is available. She Asheville is surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, said the plantings could be in raised beds or mounted which are part of the Appalachian mountain range, with with cut turf edges around the squares. Sketch your stunning views from many parts of the arboretum. A design on graph paper first, and calculate the area of sign for visitors to the quilt garden explains that quilting each section of the quilt block design that you’re plan- Clara Curtis, director of design and education at the North Carolina in the North Carolina mountains wasn’t just a hobby, but ning to use to help determine how many plants you’ll Arboretum in Asheville, NC, walking in the arboretum’s quilt garden. was a needed skill well into the 20th century. Women - need. many of them poor and isolated from towns and cities - Limit the number of sections or divisions inside the recycled scraps of fabric into useful blankets that also pattern to no more than five for an 8-square-foot bed. “If often happened to be beautiful. the pattern is too intricate, it will be difficult to translate The arboretum has been planting a quilt garden for into floral plantings,” she said. Make sure there’s good 20 years. The garden has 24 small beds divided by walk- drainage. Select plants that will have similar watering ways. Each bed is landscaped like a quilt square, inspired needs. Plants that grow no taller than 12 inches are the by block patterns like log cabin, double wedding ring, easiest to maintain. “Color choices,” Curtis notes, “are flower basket, variable star or bow tie. endless.” The plantings are done using design principles from The North Carolina Arboretum was established in tessellation, a quilting technique that uses simple shapes 1986 by the state as an affiliate of the University of North to create more complex patterns. Each year, one overall Carolina. It’s located on 426 acres in the Pisgah National pattern is chosen for the garden, and it’s tessellated by Forest near the Biltmore Estate, which was landscaped planting different flowers at three different times during for George Vanderbilt by Frederick Law Olmsted. the growing season. Early this spring, purple and yellow Olmsted wanted to establish an institution like the pansies and four-leaf clover were planted in a triangular arboretum near the Biltmore to preserve the land and pattern inspired by the traditional rail-fence quilt design. serve as a place for research and education, but he died For summer, the quilt garden will use dusty miller, baby’s in 1898, before that part of his vision for the property breath and the polka-dot plant with cosmos accents. could be realized. Olmsted is best-known for designing One square measures 8-by-8 feet, so the 24 squares alto- New York’s Central Park, but he also designed many oth- gether are 1,536 square feet. er parks and gardens around the country. — AP The quilt garden at the North Carolina Arboretum in Sun in summer Asheville.

Load more

  1

Copy Link