- But, it’s literally made of crap.
A South African gin was made with elephant dung. The creators, Les and Paula Ansley, came up with the idea a year ago after learning that elephants eat a variety of fruits and vegetables but can digest only less than a third of it.
“As a consequence, in the elephant dung, you get the most amazing variety of these botanicals,” Les Ansley said. “Why don’t we let the elephants do the hard work of collecting all these botanicals and we will make gin from it?” his wife had suggested.
The idea had come to her after taking a safari in which the ranger described the digestive process of elephants. It wasn’t until weeks later that Paula woke her husband up with the idea. “Let’s give this a bash. Let’s see how it works out.”
The first batch of dung came to them by mail from the park where the two had taken their safari. Both wife and husbands, are also scientists, and they puzzled over how to make the gin before working out the process.
They now collect the dung that they want to use themselves. And horror, among horror, they use their bare hands to do it. Yuck.
However, the gins flavor is described as “lovely, wooded, almost spicy, earthy,” and one that has subtle changes depending on the seasons and the location. The gin bottles have the date and coordinates of where the elephant dung was collected.
“So, you’re able to compare almost different vintages of the gin,” Ansley said.
Five large bags are collected for a batch of 3,000 to 4,000 bottles of gin. After the process, only the remains of the fruit, flowers, leaves, and bark eaten by the elephants are left behind.
“The initial reaction of most people is, ‘What? There’s no way.’ Though most people have a highly developed taste of it,” Ansley said. And once people are made aware of the elephants’ digestive process “it becomes a lot clearer to them, and they accept it very well.”
One guest, Jade Badenhorst, said of the gin: “Interesting. Very tasty. Very nice. I didn’t expect to be able to drink a gin smoothly.”