Another venture with tea
 

Well here I go again. The lady at our locale tea store gave me a sample of
green tea. Her husband really likes it and she hated it. So feeling rather
brave today I tried it. It was the most god awful tasting stuff I've ever
had.
I am not sure what it is for sure, but she wrote on the label 'one leaf tea'
green.
It was rolled in a tight ball about the size of gum ball. When it unfurled
it was the tip of a branch or what ever you would call it. It was about
2-3 inches long and had many leaves attached. I didn't brew it very long,
maybe a min or two. It is really green and didn't smell bad, but it was all
I could do to drink it.

"Anna" > writes:

> Well here I go again. The lady at our locale tea store gave me a sample of
> green tea. Her husband really likes it and she hated it. So feeling rather
> brave today I tried it. It was the most god awful tasting stuff I've ever
> had.
> I am not sure what it is for sure, but she wrote on the label 'one leaf tea'
> green.
> It was rolled in a tight ball about the size of gum ball. When it unfurled
> it was the tip of a branch or what ever you would call it. It was about
> 2-3 inches long and had many leaves attached. I didn't brew it very long,
> maybe a min or two. It is really green and didn't smell bad, but it was all
> I could do to drink it.

It isn't tea at all, not in the sense of Camellia sinensis. It's
Kuding Cha, a member of the holly family (Ilex.) Check the Google
groups archive for RFDT; you'll see some discussions of this stuff in
the past. It's sometimes called One Leaf Bitter Tea, for reasons you
now understand.

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

Anna > wrote:
>Well here I go again. The lady at our locale tea store gave me a sample of
>green tea. Her husband really likes it and she hated it. So feeling rather
>brave today I tried it. It was the most god awful tasting stuff I've ever
>had.
>I am not sure what it is for sure, but she wrote on the label 'one leaf tea'
>green.
>It was rolled in a tight ball about the size of gum ball. When it unfurled
>it was the tip of a branch or what ever you would call it. It was about
>2-3 inches long and had many leaves attached. I didn't brew it very long,
>maybe a min or two. It is really green and didn't smell bad, but it was all
>I could do to drink it.

Because it was super tannic? It made your whole mouth wrinkle up into a
little ball?

Try brewing it with cooler water... try water that has not yet quite come
to a boil. And try brewing it for a shorter period of time than you are
used to brewing a black tea.

Oh, yes. And no milk. Don't even think about it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article >,
Lewis Perin > wrote:

> It isn't tea at all, not in the sense of Camellia sinensis. It's
> Kuding Cha, a member of the holly family (Ilex.) Check the Google
> groups archive for RFDT; you'll see some discussions of this stuff in
> the past. It's sometimes called One Leaf Bitter Tea, for reasons you
> now understand.

I'm glad someone caught this, and whoever is
running that tea shop should be ashamed.
It is indeed Kuding Cha, and it's not 'tea' at
all - it's an herbal infusion. Very bitter, and if
someone is passing this stuff off as green tea,
they're going to turn a lot of people off to it.

LOL, no wonder, it was the nastiest stuff I've ever tried. I'm not sure how
much this little old lady knows about tea, it is also a used book store. I
know she enjoys drinking tea. In this little hippie town that we retired
to, it doesn't seem that the people are tea drinkers. She gave me several
samples of different tea to bring home to try. I did mention this news
group, so maybe she will do some reading.
I did really like the green dragon
Thanks so much for knowing what it was that I just drank. I just hope I
don't have to stay close to the facilities tomorrow.
Anna

"Anna" > wrote in message
...
| Well here I go again. The lady at our locale tea store gave me a sample
of
| green tea. Her husband really likes it and she hated it. So feeling
rather
| brave today I tried it. It was the most god awful tasting stuff I've ever
| had.
| I am not sure what it is for sure, but she wrote on the label 'one leaf
tea'
| green.
| It was rolled in a tight ball about the size of gum ball. When it
unfurled
| it was the tip of a branch or what ever you would call it. It was about
| 2-3 inches long and had many leaves attached. I didn't brew it very long,
| maybe a min or two. It is really green and didn't smell bad, but it was
all
| I could do to drink it.
|
|

>
> It isn't tea at all, not in the sense of Camellia sinensis. It's
> Kuding Cha, a member of the holly family (Ilex.) Check the Google
> groups archive for RFDT; you'll see some discussions of this stuff in
> the past. It's sometimes called One Leaf Bitter Tea, for reasons you
> now understand.
>
> /Lew

And a good thing if you have cold or something. I do like its taste too, but
brewed very cool - cooler than most delicate greens - more like mate
brewing.
Most probably the owner just have no idea because good kuding single leaf is
not that cheapo.

Sasha.