When it comes to keeping our meals squeaky‑clean, we’ve got a whole industry devoted to it. Yet human curiosity sometimes nudges us toward flavors that originate from places most of us would rather avoid. In this roundup we explore ten daring delicacies—10 foods made from poop, vomit, or spit—that challenge our palate and our sense of disgust.

10 Foods Made From the Unexpected

1 Yan Wo

Described as “the caviar of the east” because of its lofty price tag and status as a prized delicacy in China, Yan Wo is actually the edible nest of the swiftlet—a small, swallow‑like bird. These birds construct their nests entirely from their own saliva, which hardens into a glossy, gelatinous structure that they use to shelter their eggs. Once the fledglings leave the nest, the saliva‑crafted home is harvested for human consumption.

The protein‑rich nests are prized for their purported health benefits and are featured in upscale soups, tonics, and even desserts. A decade ago, there were roughly 1,000 swiftlet farms; today that number has exploded to about 60,000, creating an industry valued at an estimated $5 billion.

If the idea of chewing on a lump of snot isn’t already enough to make you wince, consider this: when the nests are cooked in broth, their texture resembles gelatinous clumps of mucus, delivering a mouthfeel that many Western diners find unsettling.

2 Ambergris

This mysterious substance is an intestinal secretion produced in the digestive tract of the sperm whale. Often found floating on sea‑weed‑laden beaches, ambergris can command prices of around $29 per gram due to its rarity and versatility. While most famously used as a fixative in high‑end perfumery, chefs have also experimented with it in dishes such as ice‑cream, custard, and even specialty cocktails, where its ocean‑like aroma adds an exotic twist.

A common misconception is that ambergris is the whale’s vomit. In reality, the majority of ambergris is expelled as a fecal mass, not a vomited material. Its waxy, fragrant nature makes it a prized commodity for both scent‑makers and adventurous culinary artists.

3 Kuchikami No Sake

Long before the discovery of the mold Aspergillus oryzae that now ferments most sake, brewers relied on a far more… personal ingredient: human saliva. In the traditional method known as Kuchikami No Sake, or “Mouth‑Chewed Sake,” the maker would chew rice, chestnuts, or acorns, allowing enzymes in the saliva to break down starches into fermentable sugars.

After the chewed mash is spat back into a vessel, it undergoes the usual fermentation process, yielding a rice‑based spirit with a distinctive, slightly buttery character. Though the practice is rare today, a few artisanal producers still honor the ancient technique, offering a glimpse into the primal roots of Japanese brewing.

4 Baby Poop Sausages

Fermentation is the secret sauce behind many beloved cured meats, and a team of researchers decided to take that concept a step further. By isolating probiotic bacteria from the feces of 43 healthy infants, they cultivated a starter culture that could be introduced into traditional Spanish fuet, a dry pork sausage.

Six batches of fuet were produced using this baby‑derived probiotic blend. Professional tasters evaluated the results and reported that the flavor, aroma, and texture were indistinguishable from conventional fuet, suggesting that the infant‑sourced bacteria could safely enhance the nutritional profile without compromising taste.

5 Shellac

Shellac may sound like a high‑tech polymer, but it actually originates from a tiny insect known as the lac bug (Laccifer lacca Kerr). These insects excrete a resinous substance onto tree branches, which hardens into flaky “lac.” After harvesting, the raw lac is washed, filtered, and treated with sodium carbonate to remove acids and impurities, yielding a clear, glossy coating.

This purified bug secretion finds its way into a variety of foods, providing a shiny finish on coated candies, chocolates, and even waxed fresh fruit. Beyond the culinary world, shellac also serves as a food‑grade varnish for wood and other surfaces, making it a versatile, albeit slightly unsettling, ingredient.

6 Honey

Honeybees possess two stomachs: one for storing nectar and another that functions almost like a personal blender. After visiting up to 1,500 blossoms, a forager bee returns to the hive with a nectar‑laden second stomach that can weigh as much as the bee itself. The bee then regurgitates this nectar into the mouth of a worker bee, which repeats the process several times.

This repeated vomiting and enzymatic action partially digests the nectar, turning it into a thick, sugary syrup. The bees then fan away excess moisture, leaving behind the golden, viscous substance we know and love as honey—a natural example of insect‑produced vomit turned culinary treasure.

7 Traditional Chicha

Chicha, a corn‑based brew that dates back millennia in the Andes, once began its fermentation journey in a decidedly hands‑on fashion. Brewers would take fresh maize kernels, mash them on a flat surface, and then work the grains thoroughly with their tongues, saturating the starches with saliva. The enzymes in human spit break down the starches into fermentable sugars, kick‑starting the alcoholic fermentation.

After the saliva‑infused maize cakes dry, they are boiled and left to ferment, producing a mildly alcoholic beverage that played a central role in Incan and Aztec rituals. Modern commercial versions often skip the spit step, but a handful of traditional brewers still honor the ancient method, delivering a drink that is technically sterile by the time it reaches the glass.

8 Un, Kono Kuro

This Japanese stout, whose name plays on the word “unko” (the Japanese term for excrement), was launched as an April Fool’s novelty by the Kanagawa‑based brewery Sankt Gallen in 2013. What makes it truly unique is the coffee it uses: beans harvested from the digestive tracts of elephants at Thailand’s Golden Triangle Elephant Foundation. After the beans pass through the massive mammals, only a fraction survive the journey—roughly one kilogram of usable beans emerges from thirty‑three kilograms ingested.

Beer reviewers praised the brew’s complex profile, noting a lingering sweet‑bitter afterglow that seemed to echo the earthy notes of the elephant‑processed coffee. For $104, enthusiasts could acquire 35 grams of this rare coffee to experiment with their own micro‑brew creations.

9 Panda Dung Green Tea

Pandas are famous for their bamboo‑only diet, yet they only extract about 30 % of the plant’s nutrients, leaving their excrement packed with bamboo‑derived vitamins and minerals. An innovative tea entrepreneur named An Yashi, a lecturer at Sichuan University, decided to turn this waste into a premium fertilizer for a one‑of‑a‑kind green tea.

Yashi’s tea plants are cultivated using panda‑dung‑enriched compost, which he claims amplifies the tea’s anti‑cancer properties thanks to lingering bamboo compounds. The resulting blend commands a staggering price of $35,000 per pound, positioning it among the most exclusive teas on the market.

10 Kopi Luwak

Nearly 83 % of American adults sip coffee daily, and most of us assume those beans have only been harvested and roasted. Kopi Luwak, however, takes a detour through the gastrointestinal tract of the civet cat, a small mammal native to Southeast Asia. The civet selects the ripest coffee cherries, eats them whole, and then excretes the beans after they’ve passed through its digestive system.

The journey through the civet’s stomach reduces the beans’ acidity, protein content, and caffeine levels, resulting in a smoother, less bitter brew prized for its aromatic complexity. A quirky side note: civets also produce a pungent musk used in luxury perfumery, and historically traders would even taste the oil to ensure it wasn’t adulterated with cheaper, human‑feces‑derived musk.

DNA testing is something in the realm of futuristic sci-fi movie territory: most people have heard of the concept, but we don’t really believe it works, know much about it, or want to be experimented on to find out! But like most futuristic concepts, DNA testing has some seriously cool applications that can change the way you live your life forever.

Nervous about taking the plunge with your own DNA test kit? Check out ten awesome things you can learn from one of these tests and how it can benefit your day-to-day life.

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #1

Discover new ancestors or distant relatives

DNA test kit services don’t just look at your DNA samples. Instead, they comb through an entire database of DNA samples and cross-reference your DNA with theirs to find common ancestors. This is an amazing discovery tool that has helped people learn about their family tree and relatives that they never even knew existed.

One story helped a woman from Honduras find out about a great, great, great, great, great grandfather who had been dead for three hundred years!

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #2

Getting back to your roots

Do you have a preference for a certain type of beer? Ever notice you’re particularly pedantic about the way people pronounce words? Maybe you have particularly rosy coloring in your cheeks that you just can’t place? Well, all these traits might be the result of your heritage, and DNA test kits can help you solve the mysteries at last. Scanning your DNA across hundreds of regions around the world, these tests can trace your lineage back for generations, and many times the results are enlightening. So, if you always felt like you had a bit of Irish in your heart, a DNA test could prove that you actually do…

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #3

Find a brother or sister you never knew you had…

A recent study showed that more than 22,000 babies are left in hospitals, at churches, or tragically on the side of the road. Sometimes, these babies are adopted by loving homes, cared for, and raised to adulthood. And when these kids grow up, they naturally have a lot of questions about where they came from, who they are, and who their birth parents are.

One of the biggest questions kids from adopted homes have is do they have any siblings. With DNA testing technology, people are finding their birth brothers and sisters, creating new bonds, and answering life-long questions at last. What’s really cool about these discoveries is that a lot of times you’ll find that one of your long-lost relatives looks just like you!

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #4

…or a Parent!

Even more emotionally cathartic than finding a sibling is being able to walk up to your birth mother or father for the first time and give them a hug, ask them your burning questions, or just say hello over a cup of coffee. With billions of records in their databases, DNA test services are making connections faster and easier than ever before. What’s really amazing is that even if your biological parent didn’t take a DNA test, you can still find each other. How? Because of the DNA chain. If anyone related to your birth mother or father took a DNA test, their results will be in the database. DNA services can use these results to connect your DNA back to the biological parent you are searching for.

Often, when people find their birth parents, they also discover many half-siblings that they never knew existed, extending their families even more.

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #5

You might be famous!

Well, you’d probably know if you were famous (paparazzi outside your windows is a good indication), but DNA testing can tell you if you’re related to someone famous. In fact, in one well-known case, a guy found out he was related to Abraham Lincoln from doing a simple DNA test from MyHeritage.

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #6

Or you might be Jewish

In another weird case, a woman who had been raised in a completely Irish Catholic home with Irish Catholicism coursing through their veins made a wild discovery. The woman had strong Jewish strands of DNA mixed in with her Catholic chromosomes. This was confusing to the family since as far back as both parents knew, there hadn’t been any intermarriage at all. After much digging and through the help of 23andMe, a genetic testing lab that does at-home DNA test kits, this family found out that the father had been accidentally switched at birth in the hospital! The two babies had been born at the same time in the same hospital (back in 1913), and because identification procedures were less than perfect back then, the two babies had been given to the wrong parents. After 100 years, the truth came out, both families were reunited, and now they are one big(ger) happy family!

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #7

You can trace your lineage back to locations

Many of us know what general area our heritage came from, but wouldn’t it be cool to know exactly where in that city your family tree took root? With a good DNA test kit service, you can narrow down your location to regions, countries, and sometimes even a specific town. Imagine visiting Sicily, hearing a story about the local butcher from 200 years ago, and knowing ‘hey, that was my granddaddy!’. Now that would be a trip!

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #8

Genetic disposition towards diseases

One of the most useful discoveries you can make from taking a DNA test is what genetic diseases you may be predisposed to. While this is not a medical diagnosis, DNA tests can show you that you have a stronger propensity towards a certain disease or condition than the general public. Since genetic risks are hugely based on probability, knowing what dispositions you have is the kind of early warning information that can help save your life.

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #9

Discovering your health/weight body type

Another fascinating discovery DNA test kits can help you make is what type of biological makeup you have going on inside you. With the right combination of results, you can find out what foods are good for you, how well your body responds to different types of exercises, and what type of eater you are. This kind of information is invaluable if you’ve been trying to lose weight and can’t seem to manage. These DNA test results can help you figure out what diet plan will work for you, how and when to exercise for maximum results, and which foods to avoid for optimal living.

Cool Discoveries and Gains You Can Make From DNA Testing #10

You could change the world

Finally, some DNA test kit services will offer you a chance to take part in a research program. These programs use your donated DNA samples to research the connections between various genetic information and traits or conditions to see if they can find causal relationships, preventative medicines, and cures. Current studies are working with infectious diseases, as well as life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and dementia. So, your DNA sample could really change the world for the better!

DNA test kits are non-invasive, quick, and easy to administer. And as technology advances, the price of these tests keeps going down. So, if you ever had a question about your heritage, personality, or body makeup, now is the time to find your answers.