Hi everybody,
I'll let the Englishes teacher tell us if it's kudings cha , kuding chas, kudinga chas, kudeding cha.... Here is what I have found in a next book. I was just looking at it at the bookstore, and well...now it's mine.
In the list of teas, they don't have kuding cha. Then in the chapter "other than tea", there's a whole page with 5 photos of very different looking kuding chas.
In the Fujian region, it is made with leaves of the kuding-tree (that's the famous holly illex). In other regions, it's made with a plant of the family of the "otogirisou"(Japanese name, no idea what it is). In addition, in Yunnan, the word can be used for the big leaves of tea of poor quality, which have a little of sweetness. The leaves are just "massaged" and sun dried. It can be blended with green, oolong or flower tea (10% of kuding). It's a remedy for too high blood tension, fever, poisoning, too much sugar in blood, whistlings in the ears and other stuff I'm too lazy to check in a dictionary.
From "chugoku mei cha kan" (108 Chinese teas) ed. Takabashishoten
But, among the 5 photos, none presents the small leave kuding, which (I've read somewhere else) is a new variety that had been grown recently (in Sichuan) and marketed since about 6-7 years. The other books put the "kuding cha" in the "liu cha" section but precise it's illex-kuding and not camellia-sinensis. It seems that do it to keep the old Tang era classification that considered it green.
Well, I'm going to read my new book and drink my Fujian kuding cha, which is semi-oxidized and is shape in dread-lock. At least I know what I have.
Kuri