If they told you this after you tried it, you wouldn't believe them.
Yet the superb Indlovu gin, a dry and aromatic liqueur produced in South Africa, is a distillate of elephant feces.
That's right, its aftertaste of juniper berries and other wild leaves comes from the digestion of the enormous African savannah animal, and the distinctive taste of this 40% ABV liqueur comes from the generous legacy of pachyderms on the trails of national parks.
The idea came to a South African couple, Les and Paula Ansley, during a safari in Kenya, when they were told that the digestion of large herbivores was a very natural process, which tended to preserve the aromas and scents of the plants and leaves they ate in their feces. In the East, a fine beer has been produced from elephant dung for years, and in India, the feces are roasted to produce a coffee sold at a premium price.
So, with special packaging and a Zulu name that identifies the elephant, “Indlovu,” very similar to the Swahili “Ndovu.”
For connoisseurs, it is not a masterpiece, but more of an experience to try. Although it is assured that the Aberdare elephants, from which the remains of these great animals come, also feed on juniper, it is ultimately the botanicals used in the distillation process that make the difference, and there the scents blend together and the juniper remains a memory, as is the case with many South African dry gins.
What remains is its originality and... the fact that you can say you've tasted it!