In article . com>,
creativeaccents > wrote:
>I enjoyed the discussion of kudingcha and found this.
>http://www.itmonline.org/arts/kudingcha.htm
>
>As a member of the Ilex (holly) family, that would make it first cousin
>to yerba mate, also strong and bitter, and also full of medicinal

No wonder. When I bought kuding at a shop in Hong Kong which otherwise
only sold C sinensis, apart from a bit of jasmine, chrysanthemum and
other minor adulterants, I assumed it was real tea. I spent a few evenings
with many steeps and many temperatures until I realized that it compared
in foulness to no tea I had ever had, and among beverages only to mate.

It is allegedly medicinal. I can't vouch for that, though it does have
the usual qualification of vile flavor. It would take more than a
spoonful of sugar to correct.

And it wasn't even called kuding - it was "Szechuan single twist".
Because the leaves were so tightly rolled, I thought it was some kind
of extra bold oolong. I got it at a perfectly cleaned shop with lots
of glass and marble and staffed by two pretty young things with immaculate
manners, decent English, and whose only reply to my questions was
"It is a kind of pretty good tea. You like it." From now on, I'll only
shop in dingy old basement shops with an old married couple who have to
have a five-minute argument in Chinese before they arrive at a detailed
answer to my questions.

Older and wiser,

Rick.