This tea comes with a price tag of over ₦35 million per pound and a whooping ₦200,000 per cup.
Panda poop tea is obviously not your average cup of tea. This type of green tea is grown in the mountains of Ya’an, Sichuan province, China.
It is made using panda excrement as a fertiliser, but the tea itself does not contain any panda poop. Before you get grossed out, let’s set the record straight, it’s not like they’re dipping panda dung in hot water to sip. No, that’s just gross.
How does this panda poop tea come to be, and what’s the deal with its jaw-dropping price tag?
First things first, let’s clarify the production process. This tea is grown in a relatively small area, using a fertilisation method. The pandas are kept in breeding centres where their poop is collected and used to fertilise the tea plants. Rest assured, the entire process is as organic as it gets, and the pandas’ diet is carefully managed for top-notch tea quality.
An Yanshi, a wildlife expert, lecturer at Sichuan University, and an entrepreneur, is the mastermind behind this. He began developing panda poop tea in 2008 after observing that the tea plants grown near panda breeding centres seemed healthier and more productive.
Contrary to the misconception, the tea isn’t brewed directly from actual panda poop. In reality, all the panda’s dung is used for is fertilisation. Pandas’ digestive system works in a way that they only absorb about 30% of the bamboo they consume. As a result, their poop retains a lot of undigested bamboo fibres and nutrients.
An Yanshi explains it best, saying, “Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30% of everything they eat. That means their excrement is rich in fibres and nutrients.” The valuable nutrients, special flavour and potential health benefits set it apart.
The panda diet, bamboo, contains healthy nutrients that could potentially prevent cancer, along with being high in antioxidants. Yashi backs up this claim by saying, “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 fertiliser for the tea.”
But what about that hefty price tag? Well, that is all thanks to its rarity and the labour-intensive production process. It’s a limited commodity, and of course, the idea of sipping on a tea that’s grown using panda dung as a natural, fertiliser adds to the allure.
Now, to answer the question on everyone’s minds; is it safe to drink panda poop tea? Absolutely. It is heat-treated to kill any harmful bacteria.
