Hey teaheads.
This is Don from Mei Leaf.
In THIS video: How to get TEA DRUNK.
In this video I'm going to be explaining the ways to get tea drunk, I'M going to try and
get tea drunk MYSELF, and then we're going to be doing a FREE GIVEAWAY so that ONE of
you can taste a tea that I think gets you REALLY tea HIGH.
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Getting tea drunk.
In China it's called Cha Zui, and it BASICALLY just means that you're feeling the psychoactive
effects of the tea plant.
MANY THOUSANDS of years ago, in the border areas of Yunnan province, southwest China,
tea was FIRST CULTIVATED.
I suspect that it WASN'T just cultivated for TASTE, but it was cultivated because of its
very PLEASANT psychoactive effects.
INTERESTINGLY, this area of the world is also where CANNABIS was FIRST CULTIVATED, so it's
an area that's STEEPED in history cultivating psychoactive plants.
WHAT IS IT in tea that gives you this tea drunk feeling?
What are the psychoactive COMPOUNDS in tea.
Well, there are FOUR compounds we know about that may have a psychoactive effect on you.
The FIRST is CAFFEINE.
Caffeine gives you that ENERGY, gives you that RUSHY feeling, it ALSO helps to stimulate
blood circulation, so it acts as a CATALYST for any other psychoactive compounds that
you may be INGESTING.
The SECOND compound is theanine.
Now theanine exists pretty much EXCLUSIVELY in tea, and is an AMINO ACID which crosses
the blood-brain barrier, and ACTUALLY AFFECTS your brain chemistry.
It INCREASES GABA production, and GABA is a neurotransmitter which helps to give you
this feeling of RELAXATION of CALM, it helps to ENHANCE MOOD, and it helps to stimulate
ALPHA brain wave activity, which is that MEDITATIVE, but ALERT and CREATIVE state.
The THIRD compound in tea is GABA itself.
So whilst L-Theanine helps to INCREASE the production of GABA, GABA also exists in tea.
Now there IS some controversy about whether or not it CROSSES the blood-brain barrier,
but it CERTAINLY gets absorbed by your digestive system, and therefore PROBABLY has an effect
on your NERVOUS system.
The FOURTH compound in tea that has a psychoactive effect is CATECHINS.
Now catechins are VERY STRONG ANTIOXIDANTS that exist in HIGH PROPORTIONS in certain
teas, and they have been shown to bind with the CB1 and CB2 CANNABINOID receptors in your
brain.
So they MAY contribute to a slightly STONED, slightly HIGH feeling.
Right.
Those are the FOUR compounds that we know about.
I SUSPECT that there is MORE going on in terms of OTHER compounds, but we'll talk a bit about
that in a second.
So if you are LOOKING for tea SPECIFICALLY to get tea drunk then WHICH teas should you
choose?
Now ALL teas have these compounds in them in VARYING QUANTITIES.
So just like alcohol, there are some ALCOHOLS that give you a certain RUSHY feeling, in
terms of a MORE ENERGETIC drunkenness, and there are certain alcohols that make you feel
a bit more DROWSY, and a bit more RELAXED.
So the DIFFERENT LEVELS in the leaf is going to have an EFFECT on how tea drunk you get,
and the SPECIFIC TYPE of tea-drunkenness you FEEL.
If you're SPECIFICALLY looking to get tea drunk you want tea that's high in THEANINE,
high in CAFFEINE, and high in CATECHINS.
So WHICH teas are best to choose?
Well, theanine and caffeine exist in HIGHER proportions in the BUDS and the very TOP LEAVES
of the tea plant.
Therefore, I would say that Oolong teas - which are made from SLIGHTLY LARGER leaves - are
probably NOT the tea you should be going for.
Catechins are HIGHER in relatively UNOXIDIZED tea leaves, therefore, I would ALSO say that
BLACK teas are probably not going to get you TOO tea drunk.
So if you're SPECIFICALLY looking to get tea drunk I would say to stay away from your black
and Oolong teas - SPECIFICALLY the darker, oxidized Oolong teas.
That leaves us with WHITE, GREEN, and PUERH.
Now GREEN tea is very famous for being VERY RICH in catechins, being VERY HIGH in theanine
- especially if it's SHADE-GROWN green tea - and ALSO probably having a HIGHER proportion
- compared to others - of caffeine.
Shade-grown tea has very high theanine, and Matcha and Gyokuro are VERY WELL KNOWN for
being very high in theanine.
So a GOOD starting point, if you want to get tea drunk, is GREEN tea, specifically shade-grown
green teas, and Matcha is also great, because you are actually consuming the FULL power
of the leaf.
So drinking a strong Matcha shot will give you this sense of tea drunkenness.
However, as I said before, I think that there are OTHER compounds that help to contribute
to getting tea drunk.
Now this is only MY PERSONAL experience, so I have NO SCIENCE to back this up at all,
but I think that the level of MINERALITY in the leaf has an effect.
The level of minerality is DIRECTLY related to the AGE of the tea tree, and the AREA that
it's grown.
I've gotten tea drunk on Oolong teas, but only on OLD, ROCK Oolong teas that come from
the PERFECT area in WuYi mountains.
I've ALSO gotten drunk on OLD PUERH teas - so the OLD tea trees, the Gu Shu’s of this
world.
The 200, 300, 500 year old tea trees that have LONG, DEEP roots that are bringing a
LOT of minerality into their tea leaves, I think that has an effect on the tea drunkenness.
I ALSO think that there is SOMETHING MAGICAL that happens when you AGE a tea.
I'm talking SPECIFICALLY about aged RAW Puerh teas, and also aged WHITE teas.
Aged white teas, for me, really, really have an effect.
I'm not sure if it's SECONDARY oxidation, or if it's a FERMENTATION process, but there
is SOMETHING that happens in the aging process of WHITE tea, specifically, for me, that really
increases the tea drunkenness.
It CHANGES the feeling.
It's NOT like just a tea drunkenness - a RUSHY feeling from caffeine, or that FEEL-GOOD feeling
of theanine.
It ACTUALLY makes the tea slightly PSYCHEDELIC, a little bit more TRIPPY, and just a little
bit more of a STONED feeling.
So if I were YOU, I would be looking for RAW puerh teas, and I'd be looking for AGED WHITE
teas.
BUT, WHICH one of those IS the most powerful.
Well, I want to find out.
So I need a DRINKING PARTNER.
Look who's here!
Celine is in the house.
It's a Saturday night in London, and it's time to start our tea drinking session.
We have TWO teas here that we're going to try to see how tea drunk we're going to get.
The FIRST is a Sheng Puerh, a RAW Puerh, 2016 harvest from Lao Ban Jiang.
Now people who know, the Lao Ban Jiang area - the mountain in Yunnan - is RENOWNED.
It's renowned as a terroir which is very, very RICH, and produces tea with HIGH POTENCY.
This is NOT an AGED tea, but it IS from Gu Shu, this is 300 year old tea trees.
We have HERE an AGED white tea.
This is an AGED Bai Mu Dan.
It was PICKED in 2009, so it's a SEVEN year aged Bai Mu Dan, and this is something from
MY PRIVATE COLLECTION.
So, which one do you want to drink?
Celine : I think I'm going to stick to the Gu Shu, just because I'm working tomorrow,
and I'm a BIT SCARED of the aged white.
Don : Okay.
Which means that you've left me with the aged white, and it DOES scare me a little bit as
well.
I'll talk about that in a second.
We've got 10 grams of EACH here.
THIS one we've picked because it's a RAW Puerh.
It should be very mineral rich, and therefore that minerality will help in terms of the
tea drunkenness.
It's also REALLY, REALLY RICH in BUDS and TOP LEAVES, so the catechins, the theanine,
and all the caffeine is in there as well.
Then we've got the aged WHITE tea to see how much the AGED effect has on tea drunkenness.
What we're going to do is very unscientific.
She's going to drink the Gu Shu.
I'm going to be drinking the white tea.
We're going to go cup-for-cup, round-for-round, and see how it affects EACH of us DIFFERENTLY.
Do you want to start brewing?
Celine : Yeah.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
I’m just going to say: You didn't MESS AROUND with those leaves, did you?
Don : That's TEN grams of leaf, but you've got QUITE a LARGE Yi Xing pot here, and I've
got TEN grams of the white tea - the aged Bai Mu Dan - in the Gai Wan.
A couple of things you need to think about if you want to get tea drunk.
The first is that I would advise NOT drinking on a FULL stomach.
Just like when you drink alcohol, if you've just eaten a meal it's going to take LONGER
for the tea to be absorbed into the body, and so there will be more of a slow, time-released
effect, so you're not going to get the full WHACK of the tea drunkenness.
Well, actually, I should say, however DON'T just drink it DIRECTLY on an EMPTY stomach,
because it can REALLY kind of PULL your blood sugar levels down.
If you START to feel a bit DIZZY then I'd advise having a little SNACK nearby, something.
When you go to China they always have little snacks nearby just to boost your blood sugar
level up.
The SECOND thing to really do is you've ALWAYS got to brew Gong Fu.
If you WANT to get tea drunk then you've GOT to brew Gong Fu style, because you want RICH,
RICH tea.
You want REALLY STRONG tea, and when you go to China you see all those men and women sitting,
drinking tea Gong Fu style, you KNOW that they're getting a bit HAPPY, they're getting
a bit HIGH.
They're basically drinking TEA SHOTS.
So these are REALLY STRONG shots - ULTRA-RICH shots of tea.
They're NOT downing it like a shot.
They're SIPPING it, they’re APPRECIATING it, but it's still VERY STRONG shots of tea.
If you brew western style you're NEVER going to have the same richness.
So you've GOT to brew Gong Fu style.
Go ahead.
You can begin.
Celine : The other thing is that they really make it STRONG, - like it's QUITE SHOCKING
at the beginning.
When we first went for a trip.
Don : Yeah
Celine : I was like, "Whoa!
This is STRONG!"
But it makes sense.
Don : We've got 10 grams of leaf here.
We aren't MESSING AROUND here.
It's Saturday night.
YOU’ve got work tomorrow.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : I don't.
Okay.
I'VE got the aged white tea.
Now the aged white tea - when I say it SCARES me a little bit - is because the LAST time
I did this I was FLYING.
I mean, FLYING.
A really, really POWERFUL effect.
It made me feel very kind of EUPHORIC, very UP, but also STRANGELY TRIPPY - a little bit
PSYCHEDELIC - brought me to a place that was certainly stimulating a lot of THOUGHT, a
lot of EMOTIONS, it was QUITE a POWERFUL tea.
So I know that I'm in for a little bit of a ride here.
Celine : That should be FUN.
Don : Okay.
FIRST OF ALL, what we're going to do is have a taste, right?
Celine : Yeah.
Sounds good.
Don : Tea is about tasting, first and foremost.
It's NOT just about the effect.
Let's have a taste of these two teas.
So we'll sip EACH OTHERS' teas on the FIRST round, just so we can get a little bit of
taste.
Then we can go cup-for-cup, and I won't touch your lovely Gu Shu.
Celine : I REALLY want to taste YOURS, I have to say, but yeah, I want to see what happens
to you first.
Don : Wow!
Actually, there are certain things - we talked before, you weren't here - but we were talking
about the different compounds in tea that are psychoactive.
CAFFEINE and CATECHINS are psychoactive., and BOTH have a BITTER taste.
So if you get a tea that has quite a strong BITTERNESS to it then it's MORE LIKELY that
it's going to have a slightly tea drunk effect.
Theanine - which is the AMINO ACID is psychoactive - has a SAVORY taste.
So theanine is similar to GLUTAMATE.
Glutamate is in MSG and Soya Sauce.
It's got that SAVORY, VEGETAL that turns to SWEETNESS - that kind of DELICIOUS, SAVORY,
THICK taste.
So if you taste teas that have that savouriness it's very high in theanine.
THESE are high in those compounds, but NOW we're adding MINERALITY, and we're adding
age.
So let's taste the Gu Shu first.
So this is a Ban Jiang, 2016.
Don and Celine : Cheers!
Don : Oh, I'll show the tea.
There you go.
Cheers.
Celine : Cheers!
Don : Whoa!
STRONG.
Celine : Oh my god!
Don : AWE, but amazing.
Celine : But it's like SWEET.
Don : Oh, I'm jealous now.
I want this tea.
It's SO FLORAL.
Celine : It's REALLY floral.
I love like when you first get the tea in your mouth it's SO SWEET.
It's BITTER, but it's like a SWEETNESS.
Don : Yeah.
This is strong.
It's got a FAIR amount of bitterness, I would say, but that bitterness WILL transform, I
know, with this tea.
Celine : I LOVE it.
It's great.
Don : And it's got a real FLORAL nature, quite JASMINE.
Celine : Mmmm.
VERY floral.
You have the WOODINESS of a Puerh, but so floral, the TOP NOTES.
Don : Mmm, and a little CREAMY as well.
Celine : Yes.
Creamy.
Don : But yeah, you're right, top notes.
A LOT of top notes on this.
Wow!
SUCH an amazing tea.
This will be different.
Celine : This is what I needed.
Don : This is a Bai Mu Dan.
Bai Mu Dan is the YOUNG buds and YOUNG leaves, and this is aged SEVEN years.
Celine : Okay.
Now I'm jealous.
Can we switch?
Don : Mmm.
Oh, wow!
Celine : It's like SO HONEY.
It' SO SWEET.
Don : It's got HONEY.
It's got a kind of MEDICINAL taste to it, as well, that comes with the AGING.
Celine : There's a taste.
It's like Da Zao - you know, those RED DATES?
Don : Chinese red dates.
Celine : It REALLY reminds me of that.
Don : Wow!
It's beautiful, beautiful.
It's been a LONG TIME since I've drunk this tea.
It's probably been seven or eight months, because as I said, the last time was quite
an experience for me.
It's got a slight TARTNESS, a slight ACIDITY.
That is a FLAVOUR PROFILE that you're looking for AGED tea.
We talked about theanine having that SAVOURINESS, caffeine and catechins having that BITTERNESS.
With the MINERAL-RICH teas you're looking for that minerality, right?
That ROCKINESS.
Celine : Yeah.
Don : And with AGED tea you're trying to find that slight TARTNESS, that ACIDITY, that SOURNESS.
Then you KNOW you've got POWERFUL tea.
Celine : So good.
Don : Are you ready to go?
Shot-for-shot, we will be back once we are HOPEFULLY a bit more tea drunk.
Hello, everybody.
We're now cup 25.
Shot-for-shot we've been doing it.
I'm feeling QUITE tea drunk.
It's been about half an hour, 40 minutes since we started.
So, let's try and COMPOSE ourselves from the GIGGLINESS, and you can tell those people
out here how you feel with the Lao Ban Jiang.
Celine : Very GIGGLY.
Very giggly, and very HYPED.
Like very ENERGIZED.
That's one of the MAIN things.
I can't stop moving my legs, which NEVER happens usually.
Don : Yeah.
I'm a bit…
Celine : Yeah.
It's like, I can DO STUFF right now.
I could DANCE around the room probably.
THAT kind of feeling.
So I feel really GOOD.
I feel like we did it very FAST though.
Don : Yeah.
We hit this pretty hard.
No, I WOULDN'T recommend that everybody does this.
Take your time with this.
We hit it pretty HARD.
We've done about 25 cups in about 30 minutes.
I think by about cup SEVEN or EIGHT we were BOTH feeling a little bit of the SWEATS, a
little bit RUSHY, a little bit of energy.
We started to be a bit giggly.
We started to speak a bit faster.
Then that just INCREASED.
It became a bit silly.
We became a bit STUPID, and we were saying kind of STUPID things.
That's kind of where YOU STAYED I think.
But for ME - for this AGED white tea - it's really added this element of REAL HIGH.
Like I feel very FLOATY.
I feel a little bit like - I walked around a bit - and I feel like I'm FLOATING, and
a bit TRIPPY.
A little bit psychedelic, and this is only after about half an hour.
So these effects are going to get EVEN STRONGER.
So this is PRETTY POWERFUL stuff.
I feel like we need to slow down a bit, and PROBABLY if I had gone for another half an
hour I might now have been COHERENT as I am right now.
So - I don't know about you, because it's very difficult - but I personally think that
the STRONGER tea is the AGED, white tea.
So THIS is the tea that we're going to be GIVING AWAY.
This is from my PRIVATE collection.
We're not selling this at Mei Leaf.
But I'm going to give ONE of you out there a good TEN gram, Gong Fu portion of this tea
so that YOU can experience this YOURSELF.
What you have to do is, number one, you need to be a subscriber.
So subscribe to the channel.
Number TWO, you need to leave a COMMENT in the section below, EITHER giving us some experience
of YOUR tea drunkenness - so ANY EXPERIENCE that you've had while you were tea drunk.
OR, if you HAVEN'T been tea drunk before then WHY you would LIKE to get tea drunk.
THEN what we'll do is, probably in about TWO WEEKS time - so the first week of September
- we will PICK somebody out of a hat, who's a subscriber and has left a comment.
We'll probably do it on Instagram so you'll see the video on Instagram, and we'll SELECT
somebody who can experience this incredible tea.
Wow!
This has REALLY given me a RUSH.
Celine : It's SO TASTY that tea.
I kept saying, "Can I have some of yours?"
But it's true.
We didn't want to mix the different drunkness.
Don : Well, NOW we CAN.
Okay?
Once the camera stops rolling we can start to share.
Anyway, that's it teaheads.
If you made it to the end of this video then please give the thumbs-up.
Check out our YouTube playlists and let us know if there are any VIDEOS that you would
like us to make.
Celine: I'm so glad I'm not talking.
Don: If you're ever in London then come visit us in Camden to say "Hi!" and taste our wares.
If you have any questions or comments then please fire them over.
Other than that, I'm Don Mei, this is Celine, from Mei Leaf.
Thank YOU for being a part of the revelation of true tea.
Stay away from the tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because
NOBODY deserves BAD tea.
Don and Celine: Bye
Celine: Oh, my god!