The cosy Scottish cafe that serves 'rarest coffee in the world' at £300 a cup
A charming Scottish cafe is home to an extremely rare, very expensive cup of coffee.
A Scottish coffee house, known for its cosy atmosphere and brilliant brews, is also home to a £300 cup of the rarest coffee in the world.
The Ottoman Coffee House on Berkeley Street in Glasgow’s city centre and is owned by brothers Imran and Irfan Akhtar. The large, high ceiling room has comfy furnishings bought from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and it’s an ideal spot to relax over Yemeni coffee, Ottoman teas, expresso, chai and Turkish coffee.
One item on the menu is a £300 cup of Black Ivory coffee from Thailand. It’s made from Arabica coffee beans consumed by elephants and collected from their poo. The flavour of the coffee is influenced by the way the elephant’s stomach enzymes break down the coffee cherries.
In the coffee house, Mr Akhtar said they’ve tried serving it as an “expensive espresso”, a syphon but the “best way to extract flavour profiles is a v60.” He explained why it is so rare saying: “in the forests of Thailand they have about 20 elephants who eat feed which has the coffee cherries in it. These will go through their digestive system and the enzymes will break down the cherries which then have a sort of tamarind and chocolate flavour.”
The Ottoman Coffee House had sold just two cups of this expensive and rare blend when TikToker Kalani Ghost Hunter visited. The American TikTok star has been travelling the UK and stopped into the coffee house to try the coffee.
After donating the cost, plus £200, to local homeless charities, Kalani watched the coffee being made (including calcium and magnesium being added to harden the soft Scottish water) before trying it in two different glasses - one designed to showcase taste and one for smell.
He described the coffee as "incredibly smooth” but “not the greatest tasting coffee I’ve ever had but I will say it’s like butter.” In the nosing glass, he said the coffee profile is a lot stronger and there were notes of chocolate. He concluded by saying “it’s good coffee but I don’t think I’d ever pay £300 for it.”
If you fancy visiting for this, or a regular priced cup of coffee the Ottoman Coffee House also has a menu of dishes including kebabs, tandoor grilled meat, vegetarian salads, pakora and baklava. They also help those in need, regularly providing food packages to the homeless.
The Ottoman Coffeehouse’s mission statement says: “Our ambition is to establish the bridges between the nostalgic coffeehouse of the Ottoman past and the present, operating as both a café and a meditation space in the heart of the West End of Glasgow, the perfect location for morning coffee, afternoon tea, reading the papers and catching your breath”.
Find out more via their social media.
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