Rob and Tom
World's 'most expensive' tea grown in Chinese panda poo
Chinese entrepreneur An Yanshi is convinced he has found the key ingredient to produce the world's most expensive tea -- panda poo.
The former calligraphy teacher has purchased 11 tonnes of excrement from
a panda breeding centre to fertilise a tea crop in the mountains of
Sichuan province in southwestern China, home to the black and white
bears.
An says he will harvest the first batch of tea leaves this spring and it
will be the "world's most expensive tea" at almost 220,000 yuan
($35,000) for 500 grams (18 ounces).
Chinese tea drinkers
regard the first batch of tea to be harvested in the early spring as
the best and successive batches, regarded as inferior, will sell for
around 20,000 yuan.
The 41-year-old, who is so passionate about his new project he dressed
in a panda suit for his interview with AFP, has been ridiculed by some
in China for his extravagant claims of the potential health benefits of the tea.
But he insists he is deadly serious, saying he quit his job at Sichuan
University to throw himself "heart and soul" into his company, Panda
Tea, whose logo features a smiling panda wearing a bow tie and holding a
steaming glass of green tea.
While An hopes to make money from the tea, which he has planted on just
over a hectare (2.5 acres) of land, his main mission is to convince the
world to protect the environment and replace chemical fertilisers with
animal faeces -- before it is too late.
"Panda dung is rich in nutrition... and should be much better than
chemical fertilisers," An told AFP, as he sat at a traditional Chinese
tea table drinking tea grown with cow manure. "People should make a harmonious relationship with heaven, earth and the environment," An said.
The tea aficionado got the idea to use panda feces as fertiliser after
attending a seminar last year where he discovered that the bears
absorbed less than 30 percent of the bamboo they consumed, excreting the
remaining 70 percent.An showed AFP reporters a glass jar
of fresh-looking panda feces, which he uses to fertilize two tea
plants in his office, noting the "quality" and "green" color of the
dung.
FULL STORY: http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Worlds_most_expensive_tea_grown_in_Chinese_panda_poo_999.html
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