Kopi Luwak is a famous coffee from Indonesia, often regarded as the world’s most expensive. Why? It’s derived from beans which are eaten by civet cats and then defecated; whereupon the farmers pick them up, wash them and dry them in the sun.
The result is an aromatic flavour less bitter than ordinary varieties.
But what, you may be asking, has this to do with China?
As it turns out an academic from Sichuan University seems to have been inspired by Kopi Luwak into creating a new and extremely expensive variety of tea. The Tianfu Morning Post reports that An Shi has recently obtained a patent from Sichuan’s IP bureau for a tea made from panda poo. An says it is the “world’s most creative tea” and should sell well on the basis of the scarcity of panda droppings alone. Plus he predicts health benefits, noting that pandas eat bamboo (which has anti-cancer compounds), as well as significant nutritional upside (panda faeces contain 70% nutrients due to the animal’s poor digestive abilities).
An began making Panda Tea a year ago and is currently selling 500g of it for Rmb220,000 (about $34,000).
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