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UNIQUE TYPE OF TEA BREWED FROM CATERPILLAR POOP
Chu-hi-cha is the name of a new type of tea discovered by a Japanese researcher at Kyoto University. It involves brewing the poop of caterpillars that have eaten various plants.
Tsuyoshi Maruoka came up with the idea of caterpillar poop tea during graduate studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Agriculture, while researching the mysterious relationship between insects and plants.
One day, a friend brought 50 gypsy moth larvae into the lab and told Maruoka that they were a gift. He did not really know what to do with them at first, but he eventually decided to at least keep them alive until he could decide. He picked some leaves from a nearby cherry tree and fed them to the caterpillars. When cleaning the droppings left by the worms, he noticed that they had a pleasantly fragrant smell, and Maruoka was instantly inspired to brew them into tea.
“This is going to work!” Maruoka told himself, and he was right. Not only did the dark color of the droppings give the tea a pleasant color, but the drink smelled like cherry blossoms and had a delicious taste. This successful experiment inspired the researcher to explore this type of tea even further.
The Chu-hi-cha project is not limited to the droppings of gypsy moth caterpillars that have eaten cherry tree leaves, even though that is how it began. Maruoka has already experimented with about 40 different types of plants and 20 insects and larvae. The results are very encouraging, and with hundreds of thousands of plants and insects around the world, combinations are virtually endless.
Maruoka claims that “the aroma and taste of Chu-hi-cha change dramatically depending on the types of plant and insect that are used.” Some plants have a bitter taste, designed to discourage animals from eating them, but various insects have evolved to improve this taste with the help of enzymes in their digestive systems. In dung form, the processed plants are no longer bitter and become surprisingly fragrant.
Inspired by his discovery, Tsuyoshi Maruoka decided to create a worm poop tea company, so he recently posted a crowd-funding request. He has already passed his original goal of ¥1 million (USD$7,800) and is on track to surpass ¥2 million yen (USD$15,600).
Money donors will receive samples from the two currently available Chu-hi-cha varieties – “Sakura x Iraga” (based on cherry tree leaves) and “Kuri x Omizuao” (based on chestnut leaves).
Interestingly, for hundreds of years, people have been consuming medicinal tea made from the droppings of silkworms that have eaten tea leaves. Modern studies show that such a drink is a great source of flavonoids, healthy, natural chemicals that are present in many plants and vegetables. However, Chu-hi-cha is the first variety of tea made from caterpillar droppings to be sold.
If you find the idea of brewing tea from caterpillar droppings repulsive, you should remember that some of the world’s most expensive types of coffee are brewed from the bird, cat, and elephant poop.
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