Tea pilgrimage: tea drunk

LOL!

This is a real phenomenon in China that is talked about often in teashops, and I have experienced it once myself.

There was an afternoon where I went to the local tea market in Dongguan and drank tea for about 6 or 7 hours without eating much that morning. The feeling was akin to drunkeness but not quite the same. It was basically a feeling of dizziness coupled with feeling very giddy.

I was told by a shopkeeper that eating some candy can cure you of tea drunkeness.

The teas I drank for 6-7 hours:

Tie Guan Yin Ren Cen Wulong A Li Shan Foshuo Shan

3 different types of Pu'er (sheng and shu included) Various types of green teas, some without names. White tea

Awesome day.

Do you have a Chinese word for it?

Maybe so, but you'd probably crash fast. I find it's better to eat foods that don't hit your bloodstream all at once. They should of course be fairly neutral tasting, or at least they shouldn't linger on the palate, if you're going to use them *while* drinking good tea. Last weekend, at a six-hour session with friends, there were a few snacks that helped manage the Chatal phenomenon; what really impressed me were Walker's oatcakes.

/Lew

hey mydnight - did you make your long jing trip yet....?

do tell....i am dying for some accurate info on this years crop...............................................................p*

Walker's oat cakes are awesome, I agree...I wanna find a recipe for making oatcakes at home.

Very good point about the food eaten with tea...I've been thinking more about this lately and wondering if I should actually brush my teeth before drinking good tea, but the toothpaste would impart it's own flavor. How to get a neutral palate before drinking is what I wonder, but the oatcake idea is a good one.

Melinda

You can brush your teeth with baking soda when you don't want to leave an aftertaste.

/Lew

Then chew a Vitamin C and enjoy the fizz.

OK, back on topic... I'm getting increasingly persuaded that tea-drunkenness is a combination of CNS excitation from all those alkaloids with a radical drop in blood sugar from whatever in tea does that. I'm no MD, but it seems consistent. Interesting that Asians prescribe carbs to limit drunkenness from both alcohol (jook or congee) and tea (cookies).

-DM

Or from simply not eating for hours.

Regarding alcohol, the eminent Russian authorities on the subject I've consulted prescribe fat, not carbs.

/Lew

The Chinese is Cha Zui (sounds like dray...could be spelling it wrong). My last weekend trip to Fangcun market left me a little bit in the same way, but some sugar did help.

The Chinese also say that Pu'er tea can help fight drunkeness and it is often the tea that is given to you at KTV (Karoke) or in some bars after you've been drinking for a long time.

A very interesting post Mydnight! What you describe almost resembles hyponatremia, or water intoxication. Mild hyponatremia can induce dizziness and a feeling akin to alcohol intoxication.

I never connected drinking too much water with drinking too much tea, but certainly it would be so. Not to say that you were suffering from hyponatremia. Although, your post does make me wonder if avid over zealous tea drinkers could suffer from water intoxication.

Kim

Mydnight wrote:

Fangcun! Nice place! I'd love to be there getting "intoxicated" with tea. I think that the "strange" feeling you have after drinking too much tea might be due to an overdose of caffeine, mixed with the excitation for being there, tasting so many teas. I think that the Chinese saying "Wine does not make people drunk, it is people who make themselves drunk" applies also to tea. Livio

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