05.28.07
Tea Drunk
posted by Phyll | 8 comments
While tea was brewing in my gaiwan, I came across a translated passage from the Pen T'sao Ching (本è‰ç»), a Chinese medical book touted as one of the earliest written by the mythical Emperor Shennong:
“Tea is better than wine for it leadeth not to intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish things, and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than water for it does not carry disease; neither does it act like a poison, as does water when the wells contain foul and rotten matter.” 1
Ironically and coincidentally, the very tea I was enjoying at the time was leading me well to intoxication. It was a rather old and rare sample of the Guang Yun Gong pu'er from the 1960's.
Its leaves were dark-colored, ranging from deep brown to black with visible whitish film on the surface. Such white dusting is common among pu'er tea that had been stored in a humid environment.
The tea tasted earthy, woody, clean and very smooth. There was a faint sweet sensation and the aftertaste was slightly minty. Its body was rather thin, though the amount of leaves and the type of water I used may have played a role. All in all, it tasted average and somewhat ordinary.
Extraordinarily, however, the tea had a strong chaqi (tea energy) and the ability to intensely affect me physically and mentally. The first cup shot tingling sensations around my lower back and neck. The second warmed my shoulders, hands and front. The third made my head swim. And by the fourth and fifth cups, I was in a state of stupor. I felt tea drunk and high! It was a sensation I rarely get from merely 5 infusions, especially with a filled stomach right after lunch.
Conventional wisdom says that tea should not be drunk on an empty stomach. Should anyone have the desire to break this rule, be forewarned that this is not the tea to do it with.
I brewed the precious leaves carefully and savored each cup slowly. On and off, I wondered about the events surrounding the decade in which the leaves of this tea were harvested. China was at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, while in America, the sexual revolution was hitting high (wonder what Woodstock was like). And then there were the war in Vietnam, The Beatles, the moon landing, etc. Those were the world — and moon — events that I learned through my elders, books and films. In many ways, I felt as if it was the history that caused my stupor, and not the tea by itself.
1 Liquid Jade by Beatrice Hohenegger, p. 6.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:39 am
great post, phyll! i love the way you connect the tea to its historical context.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Wow, you gotta send me some of that stuff! It sounds like this tea could really help in building Jing. And, as my master herbalist teacher used to say “it don’t mean a thing if you don’t got the Jing”.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Prof. Corax, coming from you it is the utmost compliment! Thank you.
Sandy, I wish I had enough to share. I could only afford 10gr of this old tea, all of which has been consumed. Could you elaborate on “Jing” briefly please? Thank you.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
hello sandy,
where can we buy some of this? i am a big fan of puer’s and have quite a variety of them. the oldest one i have is a 1975 one.
i would like to get this for my collection. it would be really fun sharing some of this with my family over dinner.
nice post - i m impressed with the way you write.
May 30th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Hi Phyll,
Probably I was too high on tea to have made this mistake of addressing my last post to Sandy. Please forgive me for that. A good pu’er would have saved me from doing this. Ha ha.
Ultimately it is Sandy who has provided this opportunity to express our views on Tching platform.
May 30th, 2007 at 11:56 am
Hello Mr. Lochan, Thank you very much for the kind words. I can only wish to write like you can. The good, old tea in question is available through Houde Fine Tea. As of this moment, there are [only] 3 beengs left and a few of the 10gr sample packages. As far as I am concerned, they are the only 3 beengs of the rare 1960’s Guang Yun Gong that a person like me can find in the world via the internet.
If you have never dealt with Houde before, I can only commend Guang, the proprietor, with the best of compliments that a customer can give.
I hope this helps, and perchance you and your family will enjoy this tea together in pleasant tea drunkenness.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
PS: If you can find the 1970’s version of the Guang Yun Gong pu’er somewhere, you may like to get it too. It was sold out at Houde a month or so ago.
The 70’s GYG is decidedly a different tasting tea than the 60’s version because they were made with leaves from Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong, among others. The 60’s version is, to the best of my knowledge, made of pure Yunnan leaves. Pu’er collectors consider the 60’s GYG to be superior to the 70’s GYG. Having tried both, I think they are just different and great in their own different ways. Although I can say that the 1970’s chaqi acted differently…it covered my body in a nice blanket of warmth…and was not as hard-hitting as the 60’s.
I have reviewed the 1970’s version here on my own blog with some background information about the 60’s and the 70’s GYG.
(that’s a lengthy postscript)
June 1st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Thanks Phyll,
I will try these things. Few Pu’er cakes were presented to me during the International Tea Convention 2007 at Changsha, one of them was an expensive vintage variety.
We need to spread the massage of Pu’er in India, where it is virtually unknown.
I need to learn Pu’er first and may try making these in India.