China café offers coffee made with eggs brewed in child urine; considered nutritious delicacy

2026.03.19 06:20 A Chinese café has been selling a unique coffee blend which features eggs brewed in child urine, selling over a hundred cups a day at weekends. Photo: SCMP composite/RedNote A coffee shop in China is offering a new type of Americano which includes eggs brewed in child urine, a drink believed to be of nutritional value. The shop in Dongyang city in eastern China’s Zhejiang province recently began to offer the special brew, claiming it was popular. Costing 28 yuan (US$4) per cup, the outlet sold more than 100 cups a day at weekends. A customer holds up a cup of the child urine egg coffee beside a sign outside the shop. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com Eggs brewed in child urine are a speciality in Dongyang. Locals believe that child urine, or urine from boys under the age of 10, can help people avoid feeling sleepy in spring and getting heatstroke in summer. The history of the child urine egg is said to begin in the Song dynasty (960–1279), when an army troop bullied the people of Dongyang. A general wanted to eat eggs and asked an old man to boil them. The man went to get the eggs but discovered that the jar they were in was filled with a child’s urine. Elsewhere in China caffeine lovers can indulge in a brew which includes a duck’s head, above. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com The general was furious, so the man explained that the urine was a great tonic and that eating one such egg could prevent leg pain for a year. The delicacy was added to the Dongyang city intangible cultural heritage list in 2008. Child urine was also used in some Traditional Chinese Medicine prescriptions in ancient times. However, today’s doctors do not advise consuming it, considering it toxic and unhygienic. This cockroach-infused coffee is one of many weird “special” drinks on offer in China. Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com The Dongyang shop roasts the child urine eggs before placing them on top of the Americano, to give the egg a crispy texture. A member of the shop’s staff said customers could ei

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