PANDA [POO] TEA

Panda Tea, a new tea brand is launching with its first batch to hit hit shelves Spring 2012, is made from panda poo and costs roughly $2,000/oz. An ounce of tea generally makes twelve cups of tea, averaging $167 per cup.

Made in China by a 41-year old tea harvesting novice, entrepreneur An Yanshi believes he has found the secret to the world’s most expensive tea in the same vein as the Kopi Luwak or Civet coffee from Indonesian ($30-80 for a cup or $600/pound).

Many of the world’s priciest teas in Asia are based on the ‘qi’, or energy, they impart on the drinker, explains the site Quora. A tea afficionado notes “This is hard to describe but some attempts of description include phrases like: `calming whilst heightening your senses’, `a rush of warmth through the body’, `headiness’, etc (depending on the tea). Another less mystical characteristic is the strength of the tea’s aftertaste. The best teas have a great throat feel and the flavours linger at the back of one’s throat all day (`hui gan’ – recurring sweetness).”

An, a former Chinese caligraphy professor, explained his panda [poo] green tea has health benefits including weight loss and radiation protection, stating it is all about the poo as pandas “absorb less than 30 percent of the bamboo they consumed and excreted the remaining.” For $167 a cup you can expect a “mature and nutty flavor”.

via AFP, Luxury Launches