What was your best cha qi or tea drunk experience ? Do you have a 'go-to' tea for such experiences ?
For me, it was my first puer. Within 10 minutes I was REALLY animated and talkative, in a great mood but also very relaxed, tore through all my morning work like I was on Ritalin (actually enjoying the process even though it was the same ol daily chores) and went for a usually challenging hike that felt mostly effortless. Hilariously the puer was Adagio Dante and has never been surpassed. Although the same bag continues to have great cha qi the newer bag doesn’t.
I’ve tried 2005 Naka and surprisingly it had zero effect. Other favs have been 2012 Mu Shu Cha (very relaxing and good mood), Xin Ban Zhang (tons of energy but relaxing too) and 2016 Bosch (great mood and made me feel quite trippy). Still looking for a stoner tea…tried Last Thoughts and Fade but no such effects
The “stoner tea” effect you’ve mentioned I’ve experienced with a random cheap shou pu I bought on Taobao from some small company. Pretty amazing!
I only have 1 tea that gets me really drunk – O5 tea’s White Moonlight cake. It tastes really good too, this one:
http://o5tea.com/cart/type/white-moonlight-wild-orchid-apricot-berries-clover-honey/
I tried to go mountain biking after drinking this… bad idea!
2012 Hai Lang Hao “16th Anniversary” Ancient Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea cake
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/2012-hai-lang-hao-teas/2267-2012-hai-lang-hao-16th-anniversary-ancient-arbor-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake.html
Ha, I need to check out that tea if someone who drinks as much tea as you could get that effect. Added to the wishlist !
@pkts I’ve drank alot of strong ones, but that one really sticks in my mind… ;-)
I’ve had a few cha qi experiences, but Heart of the City from W2T is my first stoner tea. I have heard very little about this tea, and wasn’t even looking for a stoner tea. I had let the cake sit until about September (I think) and before I had the second steep poured out of the gaiwan it hit me!
That may not be entirely true. I had a sample of 72 hours that hit me like a ton of bricks, but the gut-punch kicked in a little too quickly for me to really enjoy it. I need to go back and retry that now that I have some more experience.
Fade doesn’t faze me, like at all. I’m missing either the palette or the genetics to fully appreciate that tea I suspect. A sample of Bosch for me was a dud as well. And Last Thoughts is too rich for my blood at the moment.
Last Thoughts 2016 was the only ‘disappointing’ qi experience that I still enjoyed because it tasted so darn good. That’s interesting about Heart of the City…I hadn’t even heard of that one. I love how some tea’s qi creeps up on you.
I got some great body feels on the ‘16 Last Thoughts on day two of steeping when I pushed it to finish it up. Not quite a ’top’ experience, but pretty impressive.
Last thoughts 2015 was my first really powerful cha qi experience. Totally knocked me out. I had been rating puerhs 1-100 on two scales: flavor and cha qi. The Last Thoughts got 110 on cha qi! Since then I have also rated the YQH 2004 Dingmi Yesheng and Tea Urchin 2014 Man Zhuan 110 for cha qi.
I like this cha qi rating idea. How many infusions would you say you have before you “feel” it?
My typical gong-fu session is 3 grams of tea in about 3 oz of water. This is light so I double the times: 10, 10, 20, 30 s etc. A really strong cha qi hits me in the first cup, but usually I feel it in the second. I nearly always do the first two cups in quick successsion but often wait a while after that if it is strong or if I have other stuff going on. The score is based on the first two steeps, and I usually score for flavor after the third. I often need to go back and revise the flavor number but the cha qi number usually stands.
BTW: This thread caused me to break out the W2T 2005 Naka, so I’m enjoying a tea drunk.
I have the 2016 Last Thoughts but it didn’t have those effects (it did taste lovely and go forever). However I usually have my tea first thing in the morning on an empty stomach but this one I had in the afternoon. I need to try again in the morning…I had read the reviews and didn’t want to be stoned so early in the day :)
I also go light (2G to 2ounces) but I doubt the qi for the first 15 minutes…sometimes I get a fake high from just how amazing the taste and smell is
Thanks for the other recommendations ! Definitely adding those to my wish list.
Haha, I’m glad we incited you to get Naka’d (to quote Cwyn)
Fade has been hit or miss with me. I had a few sessions that were pretty normal, but also one were I tried to chug some down too quickly before running off to work and felt qi-nauseous. I suspect the tea is variable depending on what chunk you get, being a blend.
My strongest experience may have been with the YS 2011 Mu Shu Cha. I did something reaaaaly stupid, and also had my vision blur for a second.
The YQH 2006 Qixiang was also quite strong; I mostly steeped out 17g during a single session. I felt a ball of energy move down from my throat to my stomach and then just chill there for awhile – super pleasant. This is while my whole body was already tingling, mind you.
Is Fade a blend ? I thought it was just huang pian? Maybe its a blend of different years ?
Some of my qi-heavy teas have also been hit and miss. I can’t remember where I read it but someone made the point that tea qi interacts with your qi so it can have different effects on you based on how you feel that day. I’ll have to try the 2011 Mu Shu Cha, 2012 is one of my favs
Wow, 17 grams ! I’m a total lightweight…I do 2g Almost every sample is affordable :)
Fade is a huangpain blend. Paul mentioned the huangpian from some other pressings being included; with Bosh and Last Thoughts being on the list If I remember correctly, as well as some other stuff.
I imagine the different years of Mu Shu are pretty similar.
I deffinitely like them heavy. 17g is not too normal, and when I go that high it usually takes at least 2 days to finish.
I once had a sample of Tuhao as #$&%, and sat at my kitchen counter watching videos of screaming goats on YouTube laughing my ass off for nearly an hour. That was awesome.
Way back in the day, well, the 1980s, when Seattle was still a sleepy little town for losers, my friends would come to my apartment and I’d make a tea called Wo Hop. It came in a nondescript paper package from Chinatown. It made all of us giddy, talkative, happy beyond expression. I have never been able to track down Wo Hop since then. I don’t even know what kind of tea it was, other than it was black. If this rings a bell (Wo Hop), please let me know!
The last time I felt high from drinking tea was a few years ago when I visited Zen Dog Tea gallery in North Seattle one Friday evening. The owner was brewing a rare pu-erh. Several of us were around the tea table and I remember how the energy and the appearance of people seemed to alter, be brighter, more intense and happy. If you’re in Seattle you can visit the tea gallery in person, but I think first you need to call and make an appointment with the Zen Dawg yourself — a very friendly guy who knows all about the hallucinogenic effects of tea.
It was a long time ago, and I can’t remember the exact tea I had, but when I was first getting into pu’erh I remember having a sheng from Verdant tea with my friend and it made us pretty loopy. We had it before dinner and went to dinner and drank beer and the beer made us feel more sober than the sheng! That is the wildest experience I’ve had with tea haha, feeling more drunk from it than actual alcohol :D
I’ve also over-tea’d in a day and then had to drive to pick up my bf..that was actually not fun. Heart was racing and I was so darn anxious..too much caffeine from too many sipdowns in a day lol.
That’s quite a sheng ! Maybe I should try tea and whiskey :)
Have you ever tried having a theanine pill to counteract being over caffeinated ? Don’t know if it would work, I rarely get too much caffeine…I seem to gravitate to teas that are on the relaxing side.
@pkts haha as in using the whisky to combat the tea drunk? Let me know how that goes :D or you could mix the two and make a hot toddy, perfect for the season! I like whisky by itself better though..haha
I have not tried a theanine pill, I drastically reduced my consumption to no teas for a while and as I slowly re-introduce tea my tolerance is improving..just too much of a good thing is what did it for me! I might look into theanine in the future though!
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