scafativ said 2012-03-20 22:45:09 -0400

Panda Poop Tea... a godsend, or a gimmick?

An entrepreneur from southwest China will be growing a green tea fertilized exclusively in giant panda excrement. He projects that 3 grams of his tea, enough to make a cup, will cost approximately $200 USD.

My question is- are there other exotic teas that claim to be exceptional strictly due to an exotic fertilizer? Or is this guy justs trying to get on TV?

The full article is here:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Panda+poop+venture+brewing/6329417/story.html

10 Replies

unfeasible said 2012-03-21 13:18:37 -0400

I’m not sure if there are many other similar ventures out there, but it certainly looks interesting. I think the point of this was mostly to get publicity. He wants to raise awareness about sustainability and recycling, which is a really great idea with this. I wouldn’t buy it, but it’s a great idea.

Gingko (manager of Life in Teacup) said 2012-03-21 20:59:08 -0400

I think it’s pretty much a gimmick. The person who initiate this is an artist (specializing in panda painting). With all his good intentions, his interpretation of “health benefits” of the tea is unfounded and pretty much romantic imagination.

But, if some crazy rich people would like to throw money on it (some of this tea was sold for an equivalent of $3 per pound in a recent auction). I have no problem with either panda or panda painter making some crazy money :-D

Gingko (manager of Life in Teacup) said 2012-03-22 09:51:23 -0400

Oops, I meant to say $30,000 per pound! :-p

AJ said 2012-03-22 05:00:58 -0400

I was under the impression that pandas had a very poor digestive system, to the point that they poop out most of the nutrients that they consume. Wouldn’t planting anything in their waste be the exact same as planting it in ground up bamboo, then?

Jeremy A. said 2012-03-23 10:46:18 -0400

Well from what I know… Pandas are very bad at absorbing nutrients through digestion and bamboo has very little nutritional value (except fiber.) So Panda’s eat a LOT of bamboo, and therefor poop a LOT. So while the fertilizer rendered from this is abundant its really not putting much in the way of nutrients into the soil. In other words, its just a gimmick. Now if rumors are true and he is doing this solely to raise awareness of recycling, green movement, etc. etc. than that’s great. If he is just a money grubbing gimmick rider then he should expect to fail.

T.C. said 2013-02-03 02:35:03 -0500

Just got done reading this blurb on “panda poop tea”
http://39steeps.blogspot.com/2011/11/panda-poop-tea-just-what-weve-been.html

Wow…

Lariel said 2013-02-03 02:52:21 -0500

Well, that’s the oddest thing I’ve seen recently.

Madeline Alyce said 2013-02-03 09:36:10 -0500

I JUST read an article about elephant poop coffee!!! Something about How the beans and the sugar in the bananas all ferment together and supposedly make really awesome (and expensive) coffee!!!

Madeline Alyce said 2013-02-03 09:37:19 -0500

Oh. I THINK I read this wrong. One it’s being used as a fertilizer, the other he’s actually harvesting the beans from out of the manure…

Dustin said 2013-02-03 10:13:05 -0500

They are doing that with elephants now too?! There is some wild cat that they do that with, pick the undigested beans from it’s poop and brew it. Google “cat poop coffee” and you will probably find it. I feel a lot better using animal poo as fertilizer over picking my food out of it.