World’s Most Expensive Coffee Made From Elephant Dung?

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World News - Anantara Resorts, one of the world’s most expensive resort chains, has debuted some of the world’s costliest coffee at its Maldives Resorts properties. Just one thing though: The coffee beans are harvested from elephant dung.

The coffee is also offered at Anantara’s Golden Triangle property in Thailand.

The coffee beans, called Black Ivory and priced at $1,100 per kilogram, are digested by an elephant before you drink it.

There are only 50 kilograms, or about 110 pounds, currently for sale.

According to the resort, Black Ivory coffee beans are “naturally refined” by Thai elephants. Research indicates that during digestion, the enzymes of the elephant break down coffee protein, according to the resort. Protein is one of the factors responsible for bitterness in coffee: less protein, less bitterness.

The coffee is ground by hand and brewed table side in a four-minute process. The fragrance is said to be floral and chocolate and the taste “milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries.”

Thai Arabica beans are picked from an altitude of 1500 meters (about 5000 feet) and fed to the elephants. “Once deposited by the elephants, the individual beans are handpicked by mahouts (elephant trainer and care giver) and their wives and sun dried.”

Refinement of the coffee takes place at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, an elephant conservation program. According to the resort, 8 percent of sales will fund an elephant veterinarian specialist to provide free care to the animals. Additional funds will be used to provide medicine and a new laboratory.

Black Ivory isn’t the first coffee in the world to come out of animal dung. Civet coffee, priced at several hundred dollars per pound, is harvested from the civet cats’ of Southeast Asia’s excrement.

By GENEVIEVE SHAW BROWN  via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

More about Anantara Maldives

A Taste of Maldives’ Cheval Blanc: Hublot’s Randheli Oceanographic 4000

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Hublot pays tribute to the elegant Cheval Blanc Randheli, a luxury Maison in the Maldives, with the Hublot Randhelo Oceanographic 4000. This special diver’s watch is available only at Cheval Blanc Randheli and withstands a pressure at the extreme depth of 4000 meters.

In order to be described as a “montre de plongée” (diver’s watch), resistant to the pressure exerted at the record depth of 4,000 metres, the watch had to meet the exacting specifications of the international standards of Swiss Watchmaking (NIHS).

It’s seal was tested by Hublot in a Roxer tank, submerged and pressurized to the equivalent of 5,000 metres. To ensure the watertightness of the watch and to resist this extreme pressure, the synthetic sapphire crystal is 6.5 thick. This is thicker than normal, but is reasonable for this level of resistance. The caseback is screw-down made of grade 2 titanium, an extremely strong stainless material.

Its case is made of titanium, which makes the Oceanographic 4000 light on the wrist. From the brightness standpoint, the time and elapsed time measured by the flange must be legible from a distance of 25 centimeters in the dark. To meet this requirement, the dial, the flange and the hands of the Oceanographic 4000 have been optimized to have a larger surface area treated with SuperLuminova™, a luminescent material emitting a yellow color

The watch’s reading method has been made as safe as possible through the use of an internal rotating flange that is unidirectional and rack-driven, with a dive time indicator.

For more information visit www.hublot.com