☕ Coffee Mystery: Black Ivory ☕
This cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. Solve the puzzle below to reveal the final hiding spot.
Bring a pen, and enjoy the hunt!
This cache is part of the coffee series, highlighting some of the world’s most unique brews. Today’s coffee is unlike any other—it’s been on quite the journey… through an elephant! 🐘
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🐘 The Story of Black Ivory Coffee 🐘
High in the hills of northern Thailand, elephants roam with their caretakers. Among their meals are ripe, red coffee cherries, picked fresh from the trees.
When the elephants eat these cherries, something magical happens: Their digestive process gently removes proteins, which are the main source of bitterness in coffee. The beans are later collected, washed, sun-dried, and roasted.
The result? A brew with smooth, complex flavors: chocolate, malt, spice, and a hint of grass.
But this coffee is more than rare—it’s nearly impossible to make. In fact, it takes a staggering thirty-three kilograms of cherries just to produce a single kilogram of finished beans.
No wonder only a few hundred kilos are made each year. And unlike some other unusual coffees, this one doesn’t come from a small catlike creature—you may remember that from my earlier cache about civet coffee. Instead, it’s an animal far larger that makes Black Ivory coffee unique. 🐘
Once the beans are recovered, they are carefully washed, dried in the sun, and finally finished with one last important step before they can ever be brewed: they are given their final roast.
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🐾 Comparison to Civet Coffee 🐾
If you’ve solved my earlier cache about civet coffee, you know it’s made when civets eat ripe cherries and the beans are recovered later.
But here’s the difference:
Civets are small, and production is higher.
Elephants require enormous quantities of cherries, and their digestive process creates a much smoother, less bitter flavor.
Civet coffee may be the most well-known, but Black Ivory—crafted with the help of elephants—is far more exclusive.
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🧩🔎 Your Puzzle 🔍🧩
From the story above, find the answers to the following questions:
1. The amount of cherries or beans needed to make one kilogram of finished coffee beans. Add its digits together.
2. The large animal that helps create this rare coffee.
(One Word, Singular)
3. The final step after washing and drying the beans.
(One Word, Present Tense)
Put your three answers together (in that order) to form the keyword for Certitude.
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.