There are numerous types of teas that originate from Asia and have enjoyed immense popularity in America. For example, green tea originated from China, and is now consumed by many Americans as an ideal morning-time beverage. Most types of Asian teas that Americans willingly adopt also tend to be healthy. Green tea is a powerful antioxidant, and although it contains caffeine, the beverage does not induce a rapid pulse rate and/or increased blood pressure in drinkers. Now, another type of Chinese tea is quickly becoming popular among Americans for its distinct taste. This type of Chinese tea is known as poo poo puerh, and its growing popularity in the United States may indicate that most Americans have not taken the time to read the tea’s list of ingredients. “Poo poo puerh” happens to be an appropriate name for the tea considering its main ingredient. Of course, this unusual ingredient is none other than feces, caterpillar feces to be precise.
It is odd that most Americans have yet to warm up to edible insects, but a tea made from insect feces is perfectly acceptable for some reason. Poo poo peurh is also called Chongcha by the Chinese. The tea does not contain the feces of just one insect species, but two. Feces expelled by the Hydrillodes morosa species is collected for this teas preparation. The second insect to provide its feces for the pleasure of human taste buds is known as Aglossa dimidiata. The feces expelled by these insects should only be used to make tea provided that the two species are in their larval or caterpillar stage. At some point in the distant past, someone learned, through trial and error, that only larval excrement would do as a proper ingredient in tea. Both of these insects consume leaves, so drinking this tea may provide you with a small serving of greens as well. The tea is black in color, and it has been said that the feces provides the tea with its distinct taste and fragrance. Poo poo peurh has been consumed for several centuries by the inhabitants Guangxi, Funan and Guixhou by the Zhuan, Tong and Miao in China. Now, after much anticipation, poo poo peurh tea is finally being made available to American consumers.
Would you be willing to taste the poo poo peurh beverage? Does it surprise you that consuming insect feces does not result in illness?