Bok wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 6:42 am
pedant wrote: ↑Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:28 pm
i was expecting to see some people favoring qi above all else.
I suspect those people hang out in different places - or dimensions
We're too buzzed-out on the qi to bother replying to such corporeal concerns. I've now cast my vote in favour of Team Qi, but I need reinforcements...
I do wonder if old pu er, old liu an and old liu bao tend to attract the qi-chasers among us. There are some old teas that taste quite similar to me, but which seem to affect me in different ways. I couldn't really be bothered to try to analyse their flavours, but they feel different to me when I drink them in terms of whether they tend to make me feel calm, or energetic, or contemplative, etc, and whether they feel like they want to persuade me gently to relax, or force me to relax despite my will.
So, in response to
@oeroe, my experience to the contrary in the world of old pu er and friends has been that there are some teas which might have a thin flavour, or a roughness, or a lack of complexity, but which make up for it by having a calming but potent feeling to them. Guang yun gong cakes (or later, generic, guang dong cakes) might be a good example of that; they can feel nice to me if they haven't been mistreated, but I wouldn't suggest that anyone try them just for their flavour or mouthfeel.
In terms of teas more generally, I think that there is much to be said for balance over pure strength. A thick, rich yan cha can't really compete side-by-side with a delicate, fresh high mountain tea, but each of them can be unbalanced and unpleasant, or balanced perfectly. And something that I admire in teas generally is a feeling of freshness, or refreshment (not in terms of qi or such, but rather just the feeling of drinking something that might be light or heavy, simple or complex, but which makes me want to keep drinking more of it; like an energetic and vibrant high mountain tea which might not have a rich mouthfeel, or a yan cha with a freshness that cuts through the richness of a heavy roast).
Andrew