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.