Coffee is coffee, but is it though? Known as a beverage which gives one a creative liberty in terms of preparing and pairing coffee is also made from the strangest of ingredients including poop. You read that right, coffee is also made from literal poop of cat. Here’s some of the strangest places from where coffee is sourced from:

KOPI LUWAK

Dubbed the strangest and the most expensive coffee, this is a method of coffee production where coffee beans have been partially digested by the Indonesian palm civet and then excreted. The coffee bean itself is cleaned and then roasted before it is processed into coffee. The term ‘Kopi Luwak’ refers to the method of production. During the digestion process, certain enzymes are released from the Civet process of digestion of the beans are responsible for the distinct taste of the coffee. However, this might not be everyone’s cup of coffee.

MONKEY SPIT COFFEE

Giving stiff competition to the shit coffee is the spit coffee. The slight relief with this coffee is that there is no digestion and excretion of coffee beans involved. Instead, the rhesus monkeys and Formosan rock macaques, chew and spit the beans on the ground. Then comes the rinsing, washing, processing, drying, and roasting of the beans to be sold in different grinds. Monkey coffee has been described as sweet and complex tasting coffee but it is expensive and hard to find. In India, select locations in Chikmagalur where Rhesus Monkeys are indigenous make the coffee in the roasted form, and in Taiwan, the coffee is made on the farms where Formosan rock macaques naturally inhabit the forests.

EGG COFFEE

This Vietnamese coffee traces its origins back to 1946 and was in fact a food hack by a clever bartender to meet the shortage of milk in Vietnam caused by the French War.  Nguyen Van Giang whisked in the egg as a substitute for milk in coffee, soon the trend caught on and Giang cafe still serves this OG coffee in Vietnam. The airy and foamy texture of the whisked egg yolk is topped with strong, and dark coffee. As this coffee is born out of an ingenious hack, this delicious brew is also easy to recreate as there is no need for a Civet or Monkey to help the process.

NITRO BREW 

A couple of years back, Nitro Brew coffee was the hottest coffee on the shelf. So what exactly is this? From the name it must have been easy to guess that this method had something to do with the Nitro Beer method of homebrewing technique, it draws inspiration from the technique. Initially, the coffee is brewed using the cold brew process and then this cold brew is transformed into Nitro coffee by using by infusing the liquid with nitrogen gas with a pressurized valve. It has a bubbly texture due to the Nitrogen and this cold brewing helps increase the sweetness of the coffee. Most prefer this method as it a plain coffee with no additional flavours drawing from milk or sugar.

BLACK IVORY COFFEE

One of the most expensive varieties of Coffee, the Black Ivory is produced by a company Black Ivory Coffee Company Ltd in northern Thailand. If you are expecting your beans to contain ivory powder which by the way is illegal, then you are wrong. Black Ivory coffee is one where Arabica coffee beans are consumed by elephants and collected from their waste. The process is similar to Kopi Luwak where the digestive enzymes released by the animal affect the taste of the beans before they are collected, roasted and commercialised.

COCONUT COFFEE

Another Vietnamese delight on our list, coconut coffee fits right on this list of unusual coffee flavours. And just like the egg coffee and Vietnamese cold coffee, this mix of frothy sweet tender coconut flavour absolutely goes well with the acidic and strong bittersweet flavour of the coffee.

KAFFEOST (COFFEE AND CHEESE)

Coffee and cheese? Yes, yes, and hell yeah! While it might be hard for you to imagine the everyday cheese which has a strong, tangy acidic flavour to be mixed with coffee, in Sweden, this is customary. In this, the cheese which is usually placed at the bottom of the mug acts like a sponge to absorb the coffee flavour and give back the sweetness from the milk. It is a must try!

KOPI JAHE (GINGER COFFEE)

Kopi Jahe is Ginger Coffee and there are no secrets here. It’s plain black coffee with ginger. Due to Coffee and Ginger being heat-producing ingredients within the body, caution is advised but this goes on the list of one of the healthiest coffees which has a great spicy flavour that most other coffees lack.

KOPI JOSS (CHARCOAL COFFEE)

An Indonesian delight, Kopi Joss is a unique variety and definitely one of the strangest coffees due to its process. Here, a lump of charcoal is dipped into the cold sweetened brew of coffee to reduce coffee’s acidity. It is reported to have a sugary and burnt taste which is got from the hot charcoal cooking the coffee flavours when it is dipped into the brew.

EISKAFFEE

This German coffee delight is one which translates to ice coffee but it is slightly different from the Americanised version of iced coffee. Coffee is served with scoops of vanilla ice cream. This takes inspiration from Italian dessert “Affogato al caffè”.

YUANYANG

This Hong-Kong coffee is both for Coffee and Tea lovers because it mixes both! The key here is to ensure that coffee flavour is slightly overpowered by the Tea, any less or anymore and it could be undrinkable due to the strong flavours of coffee and Tea will end up clashing for glory on your tongues. Here Hong-Kong style milk tea is mixed with coffee to bring a creamy brown drink which is sometimes also mixed with condensed milk for sweetness.

IRISH COFFEE

Coming from a largely tea-drinking nation, Irish coffee has revolutionalised the world of coffee inventions. It consists of hot coffee, Irish whisky, topped with cream and almonds. To date, this remains to be one of the go-to alcohol drinks to coffee lovers as it brings a hot combination of alcohol and freshly brewed coffee.

Strange or not, what we have to say is that this list of coffee should be your coffee bucket list if you are a ardent coffee lover!