Rare Chinese Monkey Picked Tea
Legend says that over ten centuries ago, upon seeing his master pick tea leaves, a monkey climbed up and collected the leaves and brought them down for his master.
Whether it be legend or simply a cheaper form of labor, the story has turned into a rare product that you can purchase and enjoy.
Monkey Picked Tea is a rare tea that is carefully picked by specially trained monkeys in a remote mountain region of China.
It is claimed that none of the monkeys are mistreated or harmed in this process. They say that the monkeys are treated as respected members of their family.
We have not been able to find any pictures of any monkeys actually picking tea leaves, but we did find this one video that shows a girl whip a camera around and claim the monkey was picking tea… you be the judge.
By Kimi Naitou on 16-09-2007
Comment by darkwing duck
September 16th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
what so weird about a monkey picking tea leaves.
If the tea was made form monkey’s that will be weird.
Get your hands off me you dam dirty ape.
Evil monkeys
Comment by Tourex
September 16th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
As long as the monkeys picked the correct tea leaves,then it’s a viable means of cheaper labor for the tea companies.
Comment by darkwing duck
September 16th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
If the tea was made from monkey that will be weird
Comment by Sandcastle
September 16th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
You’d be thinking it’s monkey-flavoured. What disappointment.
Comment by Ratty
September 16th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Wow.. It’s the lonelygirl15 of the tea world if you ask me.
Nothing but a stupid hoax in other words.
Comment by Casual Adventurer
September 16th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
There’s nothing wrong with monkey labour…… Just provide them with little hat’s, sunscreen and some suitable non slip working gloves to cover workplace health and safety requirements……… Include a nice cool lunch room with fresh bananas……. Actually it sound’s like a good job, where do I sign up…..
Comment by Jason
September 17th, 2007 at 8:02 am
I just heard that the monkeys have formed a union and are now on strike pending better wages, health plan, and pension.
Comment by aaron
September 17th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I like how the video never showed a monkey actually picking tea leaves.
Comment by sentient
September 17th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I can find that pretty cheap at Ten Ren over here in Maryland. Must not be so rare. Gave some to a friend for a gag gift.
Comment by mkay2008
September 17th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Lol…
Comment by Bipolar Linguist
September 17th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I love the fact that it actually says “edible”.
Comment by zhuzhen
September 17th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
animal ,just animal.
in my opinion,we should make it a Tourist resources ,but not make them as labors.
Comment by toneii
September 17th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
“Monkey packing music makes me fine.” Am I the only one who hears this in the song Red Red Wine? maybe they knew about these monkeys and wrote the song for them
Comment by The Idea Of Progress
September 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I’ve had this kind of tea before (not the same brand pictured–the one I had came in a tin) and it was pretty tasty.
But it’s not as weird as Kopi Luwak, the type of coffee beans that have to be digested and pooped out by monkeys. Now, I hear that shit (pun intended) is supposed to be fantastic, but I’ve never had it for two reasons:
1) It’s extremely expensive and
2) It’s been pooped out by monkeys
If you’re interested, theres more info here.
Comment by Doug Tea
September 17th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
As much as I’d love to believe it I’m a bit skeptical. Its sold all over the place at Firebox, Edible, Selfridges, etc. Even a village packed with monkeys would struggle!
Comment by Marcel
September 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Do the monkeys wash their hands before picking the tea leaves ?
I think that is an important though to consider. lol
Comment by Kal
September 17th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Time for a little Chinese tea lesson. “Monkey-Picked” is a special type of Tie Guan Yin tea (“Tie” means iron, “Guan Yin” is the bodhisattva of compassion), which in turn is premium oolong tea. Monkey-Picked differs from regular Tie Guan Yin in that the species of trees for this tea grows on cliffs. Tea leaf harvesters need to hang off the cliff with a rope in order to get to the tea trees. The harvester looks like a monkey climbing around the cliff when he/she is working, which is where the name of the tea came from.
Comment by DS3M
September 17th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Come come now, we all know China has no worker health or safety standards…
Ain’t no Chinese OSHA.
They can’t even patrol products that leave their shores… Lick a Thomas the Tank Engine or a Dora the Explorer (Which I frequently did before I heard of the recall) and get lead poisoning! Good Times!
Comment by KingBrain
September 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Monkey flavored tea. mmmm, now thats a delicacy.
Comment by ablather
September 17th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Kimi, Sorry to burst your bubble, but Kal is right, it is actually NOT PICKED BY MONKEYS, rather a TYPE of Tie Guan Yin tea, and judging by the photo, the leaves looks like a lower grade.
Comment by Sun Tzu
September 17th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
It says right on the packaging and the product site… Picked by specially trained Monkeys…
Comment by Peter Martin
September 17th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Actually my Chinese and Taiwanese sources confess monkey picked tea is simply a myth, like Excalibur and Merlin. No tea company actually uses the method, they say, and therefore this video is just monkeys picking leaves of a more ordinary variety. Just do a google of monkey picked tea, and nine out of ten sites will admit there is no such product, though it has been done in small yet non cost-productive attempts at efficient picking practice.
Comment by Amy D.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Probably contains lead in it if it’s from China.
Comment by Jim Golo
September 17th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
This is a myth perpetuated by the sellers of this tea for marketing purposes. There is no tea that is picked by monkeys
Chinese Oolong Tea
Comment by Black Wolf
September 17th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
What difference does it make if such tea leaves were picked by monkeys. This is really dumb.
Comment by bob Stolzberg
September 17th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
OMG I’M SO GONNA BUY THAT!!
not.
Comment by a baker's cousin
September 19th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
i sound like such a nerd for knowing this, but i used to work at a tea store. monkeys were, at one time, used to pick the tea leaves. now they have cranes that help them reach the high leaves.
so really, they’ve just changed which animal does the job. haha.. hah.. ha…
Comment by asdasd
September 20th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
monkey picked tea is actually quite expensive because monkeys have nimble fingers, so the tea they pick is better quality then the tea picked by human hands.
Comment by anonymousgirl
October 9th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
In the Philippines, a special coffee here is made out of some rodent sh*t! its clean though and expensive.
Comment by Mr. Stinky
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:46 am
monkey picked tea is not picked by monkeys…it is a Chinese legend. I have heard different variations of this story, but the basic story is that monks trained monkeys to pick tea leaves from the highest trees on the tallest mountains that no man could reach. “Monkey-Picked” means highest quality or best tea, hand rolled and fired by a tea master. Ti Quan Yen does mean Iron Goddess. And is considered to be one of the best/well known oolong teas….yum yum.
Comment by billyjean111
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Good sense of humour…
I wish my neighbor who is very annoying can do that.
I train him to pick leaves from the trees just for the sake of it. He is noisey old man thinking he owns the flats.
Comment by billyjean111
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
no they don’t. they are animals.
Comment by Shlee
January 29th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
It may be easy for the original tea pickers to have monkeys pick tea; They have to train the monkeys first then go through the bag and make sure they did pick all the right leaves. I think it is harder than this site make it look. Do your reaserch befor you post stuff~ lol
Comment by stephanie
January 31st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
where can I get this tea… I support monkeys
Comment by Beerman Cold Beer
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
So, can i get a gift set of some Monkey Tea and some of that weird coffee that is pooped out of a cats butt? Then I would have my morning beverage needs taken care of…
Comment by livinghalal
May 25th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Interesting
Comment by Bob
August 8th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Actually tie means tea. It’s the tea of Guan Yin the “Iron Goddess of Mercy”.Monkey picked tea is oolong tea that is rolled. If you look at premium oolong tea much of it appears to be rolled into little balls and is rather sloppily rolled, hence monkey picked. Now there is the legend of the farmer that kept the temple of Guan Yin very clean and he was very devout. As a reward to the farmer when he could not get his crop in, Guan Yin called upon the monkeys to help the farmer and save the crop. That is where the legend of monkey picked comes from.
Comment by yaloo wanchingo
March 8th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
What a stupid, totally illiterate commentary. Go back to 3rd grade, dumbass.