Bitter tea Kuding - Ilex kudingcha | Ku Ding Cha - Option: 50 g

Bitter tea Kuding - Ku Ding Cha  苦丁茶 is a medicinal tea that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. The word 'Ku 苦' means bitter and the Chinese character for 'Ding 丁' means spike as is the shape this tea. The leaves used to make this tea are from the evergreen Ilex Kuding cha plant which is grown in China. The long narrow leaves are twisted together to form distinctive long stick/spike-like shapes.  Another distinctive feature, as its name implies, is its bitter taste. Though, a sign of a good kuding tea is when the bitterness is followed by a slightly sweet taste.

The Chinese Ku Ding Cha has two types. One type is big leaf, the other type is small leaf.  The big leaf Ku Ding Cha is made by the big leaf of a plant Kuding, Broadleaf Holly (Ilex kudingcha C.J.Tseng). In China, the main production of Big Leaf Ku Ding Cha is mainly in Fujian, Guangxi and Hainan. Especially the Ku Ding Cha made in Wuzhishan of Hainan is famous. In his herbarium Ben Cao Gang Mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), which to this day is considered one of the most complete works, Li Shizhen described Ku Ding Cha as a tree, which is green all year round, from which it also takes its original name of Dong Qing ("Dong" means winter or frozen and "Qing" translates as green).

Kuding tea has a long range of health benefits but we are not allowed to list them here due to EU restrictions.