"The Laughing Rat" > writes:

> "Mydnight" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > Holly leaf? Interesting. What will that do for us, doc? heh.
> >
> >
> > Mydnight
>
> Well, as far as taste goes, it makes you wish you were dead. :-P
> No, not really, but it's incredibly bitter. At first I was inclined
> to spit it out (or, forgive my saying so, not keep it down--our
> instincts tell us that bitter=poison, after all), but in a way it's
> so strange an experience that it's worth trying out. It's amazing
> what one can school oneself to drink, is all I'm saying.
>
> Supposedly either good kuding-cha (holly leaf still), or any
> kuding-cha brewed "well" actually yields a sweet aftertaste. Maybe
> I'm doing something wrong!

If you're doing something wrong, it's an error I repeatedly committed
a couple of years ago as I worked my way through a quarter pound of
those titanic leaves. But there seem to be (at least) two different
kinds of kuding cha. I recently got a sample from China, courtesy of
a friend, of something called Qing Shan Lu Shui, which looks nothing
like the giant-leaf stuff and has a certain sweetness to its
herbaceous, non-camellia-sinensis taste. This stuff is apparently
considered kuding, but whether it's closely related botanically I have
no idea.

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html