Kuding and Languiren Tea

"Emach" ha scritto nel messaggio news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

The Chinese sources I have indicate the scientific name of Kuding tea as Ilex kudingcha Tseng. . The gunus Ilex is the same of Mate (Ilex paraguaiensis). I personally do not like it, even if it is apreciated for it medical properties: cooling, purifying and dispelling hangover. I think that with a few cups of some green Pu'er I can have all this and also something good to drink!

Right. It's a member of the holly family (tea is a camellia.) The only batch I've tasted was insanely bitter, but I've seen claims that that isn't always so.

I believe Languiren is a true tea, an oolong from Yunnan province.

/Lew

Thanks for the info. It's interesting Kuding is of the genus Ilex, as I do enjoy a cup of Mate in the morning. I guess I'll stick to the Pu'er I recently purchased from M&J's - the mushroom shaped green. By the way, is it true that Pu'er could not be imported into the US at one time?

Yes, prior to 1995 it was illegal to import it into the US. Presumably because of the microbial nature of the tea. US authorities were afraid of what they did not understand.

Mike Petro snipped-for-privacy@pu-erh.net

Cautious of what they didn't know, surely. I doubt the authorities lacked the ability to comprehend the information once they had it.

Cheers,

- Joel

I don't want to be polemical, and I want to apologize to everybody for using this space for this kind of totally tea unrelated remarks, but I couldn't resist:

...well, personally, seeing the interpretation of intelligence reports about the situation of mass destruction weapons in a certain country in the Middle East, well, if I was American, I will start to have some doubt about the ability of the authorities to comprehend the information even once they had it.

No, they probably comprehended that information correctly too. They just did whatever the hell they wanted anyway and tried their best to market the idea to everyone.

Cheers,

- Joel

Languiren is my new favorite tea. I have been drinking it for roughly half a year now, first on a small sample given to me by a friend who recently returned with it from China, and now with a good supply I purchased from teaspring.com.

From what I have been told from others I have asked, languiren is a fairly new tea in that it has only been around at most for 20 years. It is an oolong tea. The leaf is enclosed in a greenish crust that dissolves while steeping. I am still not sure what the crust is composed of, but it is edible and quite tasty.

My friend's sample differed from that of Teaspring's in that it had small visible yellowish/orange spots on the crust - my friend said the vendor told him that this was bee pollen. This crust also had visible stems/stem-like objects trapped within it. Additionally, the brew was bright and clear (whereas Teaspring's was cloudy and dark), with a light greenish/yellowish tone.

What attracts me to this tea is the deliciously pleasant sweetness that is very apparent in every sip. Teaspring describes it as an orchid flavor, but being that I rarely drink oolongs I can't verify. I was also told that this orchid flavor implies that it belongs to the Tie Guan Yin family, but I am not sure if I would agree.. I am not much a fan of Tie Guan Yin but next time I brew some I'll see about the similarities.

I don't know if it was a freshness issue, but I had the hardest time coaxing the sweetness out of my friend's sample since the crust would not break down and the leaf would not infuse. I tried a variety of temperatures and steeping times (nothing scientific). It also could have been stinginess with the amount of tea I put in a cup, since I was so afraid I would not find another source for it. Teaspring is the only place where I have been able to find it as of now.

I only just brewed my first pot of the Teaspring languiren last night, with boiling water and a generous amount of leaf. The strong sweet/floral aroma and flavor were available almost immediately, but the liquid was a rather unappealing murky dark green in the pot. Even in the cup it wasn't that bright clear liquid I had grown used to, but it tasted just as good, so I wasn't too concerned :)

Ooops, I didn't mean to ramble. I hope that helps, no one else ever seems to know of this tea, much less know anything about it!

Diana

If you read Chinese, you can find hundreds of hits with this Google search:

/Lew