Blake Dinkin – Life, Love & Strength

Hello People! Hope those that celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a great one! Now, it’s time for those leftovers. Personally, I love a good turkey sandwich. Any pie left? 😉

Now, down to business.

Everyone still has a few days left to join me and many others in The Great Christmas Card Exchange. If you click on the Christmas card in my sidebar, it will take you to the post that explains it all and where you can email me your name and address.

In a nutshell; Last year me and a few other bloggers decided to exchange real paper Christmas cards. I enjoyed it so much I decided to do it again this year and all of you are invited! Please read the post where I explain it all and join us! It’s a cheap way to brighten someone’s Christmas this year. Plus, you get a Christmas card from your’s truly! ( I know not such a great incentive, but I try)

I will be sending out the lists for every participant (if you joined in the ‘group’ plan) this afternoon or tomorrow morning. So be on the lookout for an email from me soon!

Something else has happened that I would like to tell you about. Don’t worry, this is a good one! On Nov. 23rd, I did a post all about coffee. Now you all know how I love a good cup of coffee.

One of the things I mentioned was the most expensive coffee beans out there. Entrepreneur Blake Dinkin (a Canadian) is the founder and the brains behind Black Ivory Coffee, which can now boast about being the most expensive coffee beans produced. If you remember, the beans are fed to the elephants who then poop them out and the beans are picked out of the waste.

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I heard from Mr. Dinkin himself on my blog post! He was very kind and explained some more about the bean process, well here, I’ll include his comment from the post. (You can read it yourself right in the post and my reply if you wish)

Hi. Thanks for your comments on Black Ivory Coffee. I would like to clarify that my coffee is actually not similar to Kopi Luwak in terms of production quantity, choice of bean, biology of the animal or in terms of ethics.

If you believe the story (which you should not) that civets go out at night and eat only the best cherries they also happen to eat garbage or rotting insects. Further I highly doubt they travel hundreds of km’s annually visiting different coffee farms looking for the best Arabica beans.

Black Ivory Coffee production was 200 kg for 2014 making it one of the world’s rarest coffees. Kopi Luwak if it is real can be found on sites like Alibaba.com for USD6/kg with quantities of 10,000 kg.

In terms of taste elephants are herbivores. Civets are omnivores. Herbivores utilize fermentation to break down the green leafy matter they consume. As a result the elephant’s stomach replicates what grapes go through in a vat to make wine. This does not happen to near the same degree with civets.

Finally, wild civets are taken from the wild and put into cages. This is unethical. The elephants I work with at GTAEF (helpingelephants.org) were rescued off the streets of Thailand and the sanctuary is a Thai registered charity with a full time elephant veterinarian.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

http://www.blackivorycoffee.com

Best Regards,
Blake

I also checked out his website and it’s beautiful! It’s full of good information on the process and about the well-being of the rescued elephants. If I had the money and was able to I would buy me some of that coffee! It’s a good thing Mr. Dinkin is doing. It also is good business sense. So go take a look and if you are so inclined, drop him a note (under contact) and tell him thanks!

As for you Mr. Blake Dinkin, thank you for responding directly and I wish you all the best in your endeavor!