90 out of 100 Exceptional
China's value disruptor, and the litter that dragged premium cassava performance down to a mainstream price. Xucuihua, sold under the Gao Ye Jia label, takes No. 10 with ninety, and on the bench it belongs in this company without apology.
Dust is a flawless five, the cassava pouring as cleanly as any litter here, while clumping and odour each score a strong four and a half, a firm, fast set and clean smell control that fall only a whisker short of the perfect marks above. Sustainability sits high at four and a half, the renewable root crop flushing in small amounts, and tracking is solid at four, the one axis where the light grain gives a little ground. It is, in short, an excellent litter, and a genuinely disruptive one, the product that forced an entire domestic market to lower its prices.
It arrives, though, with an asterisk this list is bound to record. In 2024 the brand faced a public accusation that its ingredient list was not the whole story, a charge it firmly denies and has contested. Nothing has been proven, and the scores above reflect the litter as it performs, not the dispute. But a ranking built on trust cannot stay silent on the one product where trust has been questioned, and so it is noted plainly here, to be revisited the moment the matter is settled.
Set the controversy aside and the conclusion is simple: this is a clean, hard clumping, renewable cassava litter at a price that shames much of the field. It earns its place on merit, and it would sit higher still if the question mark over its claims were lifted. For now, a superb value litter watched with a careful eye.