We all want our food to be as clean as possible. Government agencies and common kitchen practices ensure food safety. However, some foods are made from things that might disgust you. Here are ten such examples.
Kopi Luwak
About 83% of adults in the US drink coffee and Kopi Luwak might give even coffee lovers pause. This expensive coffee is made from beans that have passed through a civet cat’s digestive system. This cat, native to Southeast Asia, eats the best coffee cherries but doesn’t digest the beans.
The digestive process makes the beans less acidic, lower in protein, and lower in caffeine. The result is Kopi Luwak coffee, known for its smooth, aromatic, and low-bitter qualities.
Fun Fact: Civets mark territory with a strong-smelling oil used as a perfume additive. Civet musk traders used to taste the oil to ensure it wasn’t mixed with cheaper human feces.
Panda Dung Green Tea
Pandas mainly eat bamboo, but they only digest about 30% of its nutrients. According to tea entrepreneur An Yashi, this leaves their excrement rich in bamboo’s vitamins and minerals, perfect for fertilizer.
An Yashi, a Sinchuan University lecturer and wildlife expert, uses panda dung to fertilize his green tea. He claims bamboo contains an element that prevents cancer, enhancing the tea’s anti-cancer effects. An Yashi’s panda dung green tea costs around $35,000 a pound.
Un, Kono Kuro
This beer’s name is a play on the Japanese word for crap, Unko. Produced by Sankt Gallen brewery in Kanagawa for April Fools 2013, it sold out quickly. The stout features an unusual ingredient: coffee beans collected from elephants at Thailand’s Golden Triangle Elephant Foundation.
Like Kopi Luwak, the beans pass through an animal’s digestive system. Unlike the civet cat, most beans perish in the process. 33 kilograms of beans yield only 1 kilogram of usable beans.
One reviewer described the beer as bitter and sweet, with a warm scent. 35 grams of this unique coffee costs $104.
Traditional Chicha
Chicha is a corn beer from the Andes, dating back thousands of years. It was significant in cultures like the Incas and Aztecs, who viewed drunkenness spiritually and sharing a drink as a sign of friendship.
Traditionally, Chicha brewers moistened maize with their saliva. The enzymes in saliva convert cornstarch into fermentable sugar. After drying, the maize cakes were ready. This step occurs before brewing, making the final product sterile. Some breweries still use this traditional method.
Honey
Bees have two stomachs, one dedicated to storing nectar. This stomach can weigh as much as the bee. After visiting around 1,500 flowers, honeybees return to the hive and pass the nectar to worker bees by vomiting it into their mouths.
This regurgitation continues until the partially digested nectar is prepared and placed into a honeycomb. Water is fanned out, reducing the substance to the syrupy bug vomit we know and love.
Shellac
Shellac is a common glaze used in coated candies, chocolates, and waxed fresh fruit.
Shellac is the purified form of lac, a secretion from the Laccifer lacca Kerr insect, cultivated in India, Thailand, and Burma. The secretions form on twigs, which are soaked in water to remove debris, then in sodium carbonate to remove acid. This purified bug poop is used in many foods, varnishes, and wood primers.
Baby Poop Sausages
Bacterial fermentation is crucial in sausage making. The spicy flavor of pepperoni comes from bacteria. Researchers have developed a way to ferment sausage that results in a healthy, bacteria-rich food, like probiotic yogurt. The bacteria comes from infant feces from human infants.
Researchers cultured bacteria from 43 stool samples and used them to make pork sausage. Professional tasters reported that the flavor was indistinguishable from normal sausage.
Kuchikami No Sake
Sake preparation has changed over time. This rice-based alcohol, similar to beer. Today, the rice is fermented with a mold (Aspergillus oryzae) that converts rice starch into sugar. Before this, human saliva was used.
Brewers chewed rice, chestnuts, or acorns to start fermentation. This sake, called Kuchikami No Sake or “Mouth-Chewed Sake,” is still sometimes made today.
Ambergris
This substance is an intestinal slurry from a sperm whale’s stomach or throat. Due to its rarity and uses, it can cost around $29 a gram. It’s used in perfumes, cooking eggs, ice cream, and cocktails. The scent is like concentrated ocean.
Ambergris is more likely to be pooped out than vomited and it is not whale vomit.
Yan Wo
Yan Wo is known as “the caviar of the east” because of its cost and status as a Chinese delicacy. This ingredient is a bird’s nest made by swiftlets from their saliva.
The protein-rich nests are used in soups, tonics, and desserts. A decade ago, there were 1,000 swiftlet farms; now, there are about 60,000. The industry is worth an estimated $5 billion.
The texture of Yan Wo in soup is like lumps of snot.
Would you try any of these unusual foods? Leave your comment below!
