When I read the headline, "Tea Made from Panda Feces Expected to be Most Expensive Brew in the World" in the Tea News Direct (who got it from New York Daily News), I immediately thought about the expensive coffee beans that apparently pass through an Philippino cat's system. Coffee connoiseurs talk about the smooth dark chocolate flavour without a hint of bitterness, and the demand for this coffee is helping to provide work for impoverished people in the Philippines.
But, I sure hoped this article wasn't about someone trying to pick tea leaves from panda poop!
It turns out that a wild life expert from Sinchuan University, An Yashi, is planning to fertilize tea plants with the panda feces. Apparently the college lecturer plans to launch a special blend of green tea, which will fetch up to $36,000 per pound. The article goes on to explain why the tea would be so costly:
"Yashi, a college lecturer at Sinchuan University, said using panda excrement to fertilize the tea plants has a health-promoting upside because it contains nutrients from one of the bear’s favorite meals — bamboo.
“Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat: that means their excrement is rich in fibers and nutrients,” said Yashi, noting that those nutrients make their way into the tea through the fertilization process.
“Just like green tea, bamboo contains an element that can prevent cancer — and enhance green tea’s anti-cancer effects — if it is used as fertilizer for the tea.”
