Aroma vs body vs balance vs cha qi

[LeoFox]

For explanation of balance, refer to Tillerman's blog. No one aspect of tea overpowering any other. All aspects are in harmony.

Combination is love of all aspects of tea irrespective of balance or harmony.

[Victoria]

Nice poll @LeoFox. Not long ago I shared some thoughts regarding all the senses working together during a tea session;

I can imagine some benefit in narrowing down a focus during a session to just a few senses like texture, mouth feel, hui gan. And I agree some teas exhibit their strength in body over aroma, mouth feel over taste, or body feel over both aroma and taste.

Yet, what keeps me coming back to yet another tea session is a symphony of the senses, sometimes dissonant, sometimes harmonic, always fluid and changing. Heightened sensory olfactory, gustatory, tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, auditory awareness keeps me engaged and wanting more. Aroma coming off warm leaf sets the tone for a session, as does aromatic steam rising as I pour the first few steeps. Empty cup aroma can be so intoxicating, without even sipping on a tea. Aroma also effects our perception of taste, of texture, and body. The experience of flavor is a mingling of visual, aromatic, textural, thermal and other sensations. All these sensations work together so perfectly when a tea is superior, I see no need to eliminate some over others.

[pedant]

good poll. before i answer, can you please contrast "I prefer balance" and "I prefer the combination of body aroma and aftertaste"?
what is meant by balance?

anyway, in descending order of importance for me:

aroma
mouthfeel / mouth activity ← idk where this fits into the options. maybe that's body?
body
aftertaste
qi

[Youzi]

I'm greedy.... I want all.
Aroma, taste, aftertaste, strength and all balanced perfectly.

[LeoFox]

good poll. before i answer, can you please contrast "I prefer balance" and "I prefer the combination of body aroma and aftertaste"?
what is meant by balance?

anyway, in descending order of importance for me:

aroma
mouthfeel / mouth activity ← idk where this fits into the options. maybe that's body?
body
aftertaste
qi

Balance connotes no one aspect of the tea overpowering the other and all are in harmony.

Combination wants everything, but not necessarily in harmony. Asymmetry and dissonance are totally acceptable.

Did you vote yet?

[pedant]

i see, thanks.

Did you vote yet?

yes, i picked "I prefer the combination of body aroma and aftertaste."
i picked it because qi is of least concern to me out of the stated aspects (but it still matters!), and it's hard for me to be interested in a tea with poor aroma. no aroma = no drink. too boring. also, a tea can't be totally missing body or aftertaste. but if they're not perfectly balanced, that's ok with me.

[debunix]

I put taste first, because the wrong balance of flavors can definitely turn me off faster than any other aspect of a tea. And I may have strong enough memories of aroma or aftertaste to make me crave another session with a tea. Many of my favorite teas have a thick body, but not all, so I put that as less important, but it is still something I value. And because I rarely am strongly aware of particular body sensations afterwards, and don't really seek out teas for that quality, it is thus the lowest priority: I can't really think of a tea that I composted because of feeling bad afterwards.

I've been seeking out variety of teas and trying to learn a lot about them for more than 5 years, but I'm not sure if I've really been drinking 'seriously' if I've not paid enough attention to Cha Qi.

[LeoFox]

I put taste first, because the wrong balance of flavors can definitely turn me off faster than any other aspect of a tea. And I may have strong enough memories of aroma or aftertaste to make me crave another session with a tea. Many of my favorite teas have a thick body, but not all, so I put that as less important, but it is still something I value. And because I rarely am strongly aware of particular body sensations afterwards, and don't really seek out teas for that quality, it is thus the lowest priority: I can't really think of a tea that I composted because of feeling bad afterwards.

I've been seeking out variety of teas and trying to learn a lot about them for more than 5 years, but I'm not sure if I've really been drinking 'seriously' if I've not paid enough attention to Cha Qi.

Some people think cha qi can be placed in the same box as voodoo and sorcery. Then again, as we both know, placebo effect is real and can be potent.

[LeoFox]

Bump

Come on where is team aroma? Where is team body?

Saying combo can be a cop out as it is open ended and could just as well mean you have no idea what you like.

[Ethan Kurland]

Saying combo can be a cop out as it is open ended and could just as well mean you have no idea what you like.

Combo also covers one whose preference varies over time.
Great chart & with drawing of my former girlfriend who dropped me decades ago because I kept having food caught in my beard.
Cheers

[pedant]

i was expecting to see some people favoring qi above all else.

[klepto]

I rarely notice cha qi so that isn't important to me. I like the balance of all but I can't say I can notice that balance always.
There are times that I get caught up on taste, or how the tea expands in my mouth or other things. Sometimes I am drinking tea so fast I won't notice anything..

[wave_code]

I think the tough thing here in some ways is what is preference vs what is a deal breaker. Certain teas I like and get cravings for maybe because of its aroma/taste, and others for the body and or longevity, some just because they are not fussy and easy to make while still being good, some because of how they feel. If you can get it all, then its a great tea, but I'm willing to put up with certain things but not others. For example I recently got a large amount of a particular tea because its not fussy and I think it has some really nice characteristics, but its a little rough around the edges and isn't the smoothest tea on the planet in the throat if you drink a lot. That said, everything else about it outweighs that for me and theres the possibility of time smoothing it out.

Cha qi I think for me is super important not in terms of what I look for but as a dealbreaker. If a tea makes me feel uncomfortable or anxious or straight up bad then nothing else about it will matter. Maybe they exist, but I've yet to have a tea that tastes so good I'd be willing to put up with feeling bad for the entire rest of the day just to have it. Usually these things go hand in hand though - bad feeling in the body usually also comes from bad processing, storage, or chemicals. If its just that its too strong then maybe its more a matter of finding a way to regulate it- drinking very small amounts or brewing it a different way. I've been trying to explore this a bit with sheng lately with limited success as there are some I like the flavors of but they generally don't agree with me feeling wise, especially in large quantity.

[Bok]

i was expecting to see some people favoring qi above all else.

I suspect those people hang out in different places - or dimensions

[oeroe]

Choosing only one was hard: why can't I say that I've been drinking tea for more than five years, and that I'm new to tea?

Often I find that many of these qualities go together, I haven't really had teas which would make me say "The Qi here is fantastic, but the body is a bit lacking" or "this has such a nice body, but it's imbalanced".