Sunday, October 12, 2008

Monkey Served Tea

I have read many posts on various blogs about how not only is there no such thing as true monkey picked tea, but that there never was.  In principle I agree.  How could monkeys be trained to pick only the new leaves, and the proper number? How would you train the monkey to collect the tea in a bag and not just throw it around?  Wouldn't the monkey bruise the leaf and damage the trees?

Now we have startling new scientific evidence that monkeys can be trained to pick tea!  Well not really, but I saw an article in the Daily Mail about monkeys who work as waiters in a restaurant; and although it is not explicitly mentioned, they probably serve tea as one of their duties.

I leave you, the gentle reader, to be the judge of my outrageous extrapolation.  Does a monkey serving tea in a restaurant suggest his ancestors or at least cousins in China might have been capable of picking tea?  The scientific community awaits our verdict with communal bated breath.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since monkeys share more than 98 percent of the human genome, it seems entirely plausible that they might pick and eventually serve tea. I just hope they've washed their hands before serving. Eileen

Thomas said...

Incredible! I've just watched the vidéo on you tube... amazing!
I didn't check the date, Was it on the First of April? Funny...

Your blog seems very intersting, a lot of information directly from THE place, I'll come back to read the previous article... Thanks!

I gave the link of your blog on my own blog to share it with my readers

LaoChaGui said...

Thanks a lot for your comments.

Eileen, I agree with you that it is a possibility that monkeys could pick tea. I just wonder if they could pick enough to make it worth it.

Thomas, Thanks a lot for the link on your blog, I am honored.
The Daily Mail article was from 7th October. I read about it on a Chinese website in an article dated 9th October. The Chinese article referenced the Daily Mail article, which was how I found the video.

LaoChaGui said...

The jokes on me. I did not get it when you asked me if the video was from April First, Thomas. Please believe me, I am not as dense as I seem.

Oh well. 大直若屈 大巧若拙 大辩若讷