The food and coffee world can be a crazy place. Trends come and go faster than the mind of a temperamental two-year old, and it can be hard to keep up. One of the latest and most intriguing trends is poop coffee, or coffee that has been digested and excreted by animal dung. While it might sound gross, poop coffee is actually quite delicious!

Kopi luwak, or cat poop coffee, is probably the most well-known type of animal poop coffee. The drink gets its name from the fact that the coffee cherries are digested and defecated by civets, or Asian palm civet cats, which are not actual cats but are a related species native to Southeast Asia. These civets are selective in the cherries they eat, and only eat ripe ones. They then poop them out, and the beans are collected and roasted to make kopi luwak.

The Scoop on Poop: Unveiling the Fascinating World of Coffee from Animal Droppings

While this is an ancient way of making coffee, the popularity of poop coffee has given rise to other types of animal poop coffees. Henrique Sloper, a coffee farmer in Camocin, Brazil, developed bird poop coffee when his farm was overrun by wild jacu birds, who were eating the best coffee cherries and nearly destroying the plants themselves. Sloper decided to work with the birds and adapted his production methods to create this unique coffee.

Like civet poop coffee, jacu bird poop coffee is made from coffee beans that are washed several times to remove any fecal contaminants and roasted before being ground up into a cup of joe. It is said to taste earthy, syrupy, smooth, and with chocolate and jungle undertones.