Here's what it takes to make the world's most exotic coffees

Aphrodisiacal, engaging, addictive and a stimulator, coffee has and will always be one of the go-to drinks when one has to start a day or complete it. But it does take a lot to brew that perfect cup of coffee. Some of the best coffee in the world comes from high-quality beans and unique processing methods. Each of these specialty coffees is known for its distinct flavour and aroma, as well as its high price tag. They are grown in the hinterlands of Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, apart from 70 other places in the coffee-growing world. Two of the most expensive coffees in the world today have unique stories behind them. Let's start brewing with the first—Black Ivory Coffee. According to David Blake, founder of Black Ivory Coffee Company, their coffee is created through a process whereby coffee beans are naturally refined by street-rescued Thai elephants at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation www.helpingelephants.org in Chiang Saen, (Northern) Thailand?. It begins with selecting the best 100% Thai Arabica beans that have been picked from an altitude as high as 1,500 m. Once deposited by the elephants, the individual beans are hand-picked by the mahouts and their wives and then sun-dried and roasted. Approximately 8800 beans are picked for each kilogram of roasted coffee; thus, 33 kg of coffee cherries are required to produce just one kg of Black Ivory Coffee. The second one, Kopi Luwak comes not from a plant, but a wild cat in Indonesia called the civet that loves to chew on coffee beans. Not only do the civets pick the best fleshy beans from select shrubs, but they also secrete Protease enzymes during their digestion. These enzymes seep into the beans and give them a unique flavour. After passing through the civet's intestines, once the beans are defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected, cleaned and then processed.Although both these coffees have a unique form of processing rather than being unique varieties, they are touted as the the most expensive coffees in the world with retail prices reaching US$700/kg for the Kopi Luwak and US$1,600/kg for the Black Ivory Coffee.