Chu-hi-cha is the name of a new type of tea discovered by a Japanese researcher at Kyoto University. It involves brewing the droppings of caterpillars that have feasted on various plants.

Tsuyoshi Maruoka came up with the idea of caterpillar tea during graduate studies at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Agriculture, while researching the mysterious relationship between insects and plants. One day, a senior brought 50 gypsy moth larvae into the lab and told Maruoka that they were a souvenir. He didn’t really know what to do with them at first, but he eventually decided to at least keep them alive until he could decide, so he picked some leaves from a nearby cherry tree and fed them to the caterpillars. When cleaning the droppings left by the critters, he noticed that they had a pleasantly fragrant smell and was almost instantly inspired to brew them into tea.

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A New England distillery specializing in bourbon whisky has joined the fight against an invasive crab species by using the crustaceans to create a surprisingly tasty crab-infused spirit.

“When life gives lemons, make lemonade,” the old saying goes, and the folks at New Hampshire’s Tamworth Distillery adapted it to their region-specific problem. New England’s fishermen have been complaining about green crabs devouring their shellfisheries for a while now, but with no natural predators to worry about and increasing sea temperatures working in their favor, there is little anyone can do to stop them. But little isn’t nothing, and Tamworth Distillery has come up with a way to fight the invasive species while expanding its business. They created a crab-infused bourbon aptly-named Crab Trapper.

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