What makes a tea "clean"?

AndreiC
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Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:43 am

Andrew S wrote:
Sat Sep 10, 2022 8:49 pm
It seems to be a highly contextual phrase, as well as being an inherently vague term. There's value in trying to use the expression more precisely, but I also think that it's useful to distinguish between saying that a tea 'is' clean and saying that it 'tastes' or 'feels' clean. The former refers mostly to how it was grown whereas the latter refers mostly to how it presents in terms of flavour, aroma, mouthfeel and 'qi'. And the concept of clean storage seems to be another topic as well.
LeoFox wrote:
Sat Sep 10, 2022 8:30 pm
An example: for me, a tea festering with various insects and fungus at some point during its storage lifetime is extremely unappetizing and unclean no matter how it tastes- or how narcotic its qi feels, yet some would deem this proper and even clean (e.g. 50 year old tea with insects eggs and droppings).
One of my favourite teas is a liu an which was sold to me as being from the 70s (but might actually be from the 50s or thereabout). It tastes and feels very 'clean' to me. However, I did have to brush off ancient spiderwebs and long-dead spiders from the basket... Despite that, I somehow still think that the storage was 'clean', but I can definitely see why I might be in the minority on this point.

Andrew
Tea is truly a magical plant and a great teacher. I guess in this case we can say that a good tea is like the flower of lotus, surrounded by a swamp yet remaining immaculate.
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Bok
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Sun Oct 02, 2022 7:40 pm

AndreiC wrote:
Sun Oct 02, 2022 10:43 am
Tea is truly a magical plant and a great teacher. I guess in this case we can say that a good tea is like the flower of lotus, surrounded by a swamp yet remaining immaculate.
The swamp being the mass of bad teas or what do you mean?

In fact, if tea is surrounded by bad stuff, it kind of absorbs it... so only tea surrounded by clean earth, water, air, etc will become the very best base material. It then still needs to hope for being harvested and processed by skilled people in order to show its full potential.
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Baisao
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Wed Nov 09, 2022 6:46 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Sat Sep 10, 2022 8:30 pm
The term "clean" is often thrown around in the tea community without being clearly defined.
I’ll go ahead and touch the third rail.

I’m sensitive to cha qi and believe that these sensations are entirely chemical, rather than woo. Therefore, it is an interaction that is occurring between my body’s chemistry and that of the tea.

Some teas agree with my constitution more than others. Some that my body cannot tolerate are consumed by liters a day by other people. So to me, cha qi is inherently variable by individual.

The qi of some teas feel gross, like smoking a cigarette or having a bad hangover. My head hurts, my thoughts are dull, and (in extreme cases) I may feel this way for several days after a short session. There is an overall lack of clarity to the sensations.

Other teas, that I might describe as clean, have clarity to the sensations. My thoughts are not dull, tension is released in my body, and various pleasant sensations move through my body. Sometimes there is a sensation like I’m a large bell that has been struck and I just ring for days.

More often than not I’ll encounter these pleasant, clear sensations in wild/feral/organic tea, but I’ve also had these experiences with wet aged sheng and teas with no claims of being organic.

I’m still amazed that people don’t feel tea this way. They are probably equally amazed. Or even skeptical. I can’t explain cha qi beyond what I’ve said above but it is as apparent to me as when I taste an artificially sweetened beverage: there’s no hiding it.

All teas have cha qi. Some feel dirty and some feel clean.
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debunix
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Wed Nov 09, 2022 11:44 pm

Tea is more than a caffeine and theanine delivery vehicle. It makes perfect sense to me that some teas make you feel differently than others. This was very vividly demonstrated in our recent Tea Tasting when a 10 year old LBZ gave a powerful sensation of tea drunk, but a a 15-year-old and more carefully aged version was much gentler.

I rarely get such a strong sensation from my tea sessions, and a lot of that probably has to do with the way I usually prepare it: less leaf, more water, more infusions, so that the total impact of the same grams of tea for me is spread out over a longer time.
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