AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY GROSS . . .

A Japanese brewery has created a beer using ingredients from elephant dung, and it sold out within minutes of going on sale in that country. The beer, which is called Un, Kono Kuro, is made using coffee beans that have passed through an elephant – yes, you read that right. The Sankt Gallen brewery called the beer a “chocolate stout”, despite it not containing any chocolate. The coffee beans, which come from elephants at Thailand’s Golden Triangle Elephant Foundation, cost over $1OO per 35 grams – so expensive that 33kgs of beans in the mouth yields 1kg of useable coffee beans. As bizarre as it sounds, the critics love it. Mr. Sato, from Japanese website RocketNews24.com, tasted the beer and said: “After taking my first sip there was an initial bitterness that got washed over by a wave of sweetness. Following that, a mellow body rolled in and spread out through my mouth. Usually people talk about aftertaste when drinking beer but with Un, Kono Kuro the word ‘afterglow’ is much more appropriate.” Enticing descriptions notwithstanding, we are perfectly content to take their word that it’s that delicious.