1. Whale Vomit ($70,000)
An Overton, Lancashire couple, Gary and Angela Williams, are in negotiations with potential consumers after stumbling throughout a priceless piece of ambergris throughout a stroll on the seaside.
Ambergris, in any other case often called whale vomit, is utilized by perfumers to make scents last more and might fetch very excessive costs due to its rarity. The 1.57kg lump of the substance discovered by the couple may very well be price round £50,000 ($70,000).
Ambergris is secreted within the bile duct and intestines of sperm whales and is considered produced to ease the passage of onerous, sharp objects that the whale might need eaten. And, no, it would not odor nice. Gary Williams mentioned it has a particular scent, “like a cross between squid and farmyard manure.”
(Source | Photo)
2. Casu Marzu (approx $100 per lb)
You’ve got entered an entire new class of repulsiveness once you chunk into Casu Marzu— a putrefied cheese infested with stay, wriggling maggots.
To craft this noxious specialty, Sardinian cheese makers encourage the cheese fly to put eggs of their pecorino cheeses. Maggots then launch an enzyme throughout their digestion that causes the cheese’s fats to putrefy. This distinctive fermentation course of yields a sticky, gluey, gummy mass, nonetheless teeming with the worms, and able to be eaten.
It’s advisable when taking a chunk of Casu Marzu to cowl your eyes to guard them from the maggots, who can and do leap as much as six inches off the cheese, with malevolent precision. (Too squeamish? Seal the cheese in a paper bag. The oxygen-deprived maggots will bounce off the cheese in an try to flee; when the pitter patter of their dying flops subsides, you may safely dive in!)
Casu Marzu is prohibited (the explanations are apparent as to why), however this isn’t to say it could’t be had. As a black market delicacy, it’s offered slightly below the radar at markets for about $100 a pound. (Source | Photo)
3. Sheep Placenta Facial ($500)
Celebs from Kim Kardashian and Harry Kinds to Victoria Beckham flock to skincare professional Louise Deschamps for her $500 sheep placenta facial, which she claims boosts pores and skin immunity and helps battle irritation. The science behind the serum argues that stem cells within the animal’s afterbirth encourage new tissue progress and regeneration. Whereas it has been mentioned to odor “like sweat combined with vinegar,” it is also been rumored to yield optimistic outcomes. (Source | Photo)
4. Kopi Luwak Espresso ($90 per serving)
Kopi Luwak is the world’s priciest espresso. The drink is brewed from beans swallowed and excreted by Indonesian civet cats, small mammals that look one thing like a cross between cats and weasels. The espresso sells for as a lot as $90 per cup.
Civets as soon as roamed free on plantations, feeding on espresso cherries at night time. After the animals eat the flesh of the ripe espresso cherries, their digestive system apparently imparts a clean physique and aroma to the beans, which emerge complete on the opposite aspect. Their droppings are then collected, cleaned, roasted and brewed. However today, the overwhelming majority of civet farms cage their animals to maximise manufacturing.
For the reason that craze started, there have been a number of investigations into the remedy of captive civet cats. Critics say isolating the animals in cages and feeding them solely espresso cherries is merciless and results in erratic conduct and self-inflicted accidents. (Source 1 | Source 2 | Photo)
5. Chicken Poop Facial ($180)
Chicken poop for magnificence? That is what goes into facials at a luxurious spa the place the normal Japanese remedy of utilizing imported Asian nightingale excrement combined with rice bran goes for $180 a pop.
Each sexes flock to Shizuka New York skincare salon every month to get the remedy, which is promoted as a solution to preserve the face smooth and clean utilizing an enzyme within the poop to softly exfoliate the pores and skin. Whereas comparatively uncommon in america, it’s widespread in Japan the place actors and geishas first employed it within the 1600s.
If the value is just too onerous in your pockets, you should purchase the elements on-line for lots much less and do it your self. Additionally, a standard false impression is that any outdated fowl poop will do, however solely droppings from the nightingale will work—the species lives on seeds, producing the pure enzyme that’s the lively ingredient. (Source | Photo)
6. Elephant Dung Beer ($100 per bottle)
In 2013, Japanese primarily based brewery Sankt Gallen determined to make their beer a particular form of manner—utilizing espresso beans manufactured from elephant dung. Un, Kono Kuro, a play on the Japanese phrase for “crap,” offered out in minutes regardless of its excessive value, which will be attributed to the associated fee to make it.
Originating from the digestive system of animals in Thailand’s Golden Triangle Elephant Basis, the beans price £65 ($99) for 35g. Whereas it sounds gross initially, those that’ve tasted it give Un, Kono Kuro rave opinions. (Source)