I read an article the other day about one of the world’s most expensive teas.
Yes, tea.
Those lovely little leaves you drop into hot water and steep.
Pure ambrosia….
As long as it’s not the dishwater my MIL used to drink.
If you’re drinking tea? For God’s sake, drink tea.
I love tea, and am always intrigued to try a new one.
Except the one I read about the other day. It was called PET, short for Panda Ecological Tea. This particular tea sells for $200 a cup….. and if that’s not enough to frighten you away, the fact that’s it’s grown in China and is fertilized entirely with panda poo should be.
Apparently pandas poo 40 – 50 times a day, so I’m guessing supply isn’t an issue.
Grown high in the Ya’an mountainous region of Sichuan China, the panda manure tea—or Panda Ecological Tea (PET) by its formal name—is said to be smooth, and offer health benefits because of the way that pandas digest bamboo in the wild—which leaves around 70% of the nutrients in their dung, not their bodies.
Panda manure has also been shown to carry bacteria that break down organic waste more effectively than any other known source. One experiment showed that the bacteria broke 100 kilograms of waste down into 3 kilograms after only a 17 week period, with only carbon dioxide and water byproducts. Researchers think that there is a market for this organic compound capable of reducing waste by 96%, but whether or not organic tea at $200 per cup is the answer, is questionable.
Questionable?
Probably.
Although you can’t fault the marketing campaign….
It’s simply delightful.
And while I was researching this topic?
I stumbled across another panda poo product…
A new type of luxury facial tissue made with recycled Panda feces is set to be launched in China.
The bizarre product, called “Panda poo,” will retail at for $6.54 a box, ten times the price of ordinary tissue paper.
Addressing concerns of skeptics who may find it unhygenic to wipe their faces with feces, Zhou said that there are many processes in place to ensure the product is ready for consumption. After washing and streaming, the paper will be sterilized in high temperatures.
Panda poo.
Who knew it was so versatile?
