Emerald Thai Tea

[Puerlife]

I've tried several Thai oolongs now. Many of them taste good but a minute after you drink a cup you're done. No mouthfeel, no aftertaste. Just gone. They can wake you up, of course, and provide some calming due to the L-theanine, but nothing like the qi an interesting young sheng puer can. I have no choice but to use puer as a comparison because I've never had a world class oolong. That might change when I go to the Tea Expo in KL in June. I'll let you know.

[ethan]

Puerlife, You probably cannot get the "qi" that you get & like from pu, by drinking oolong. Perhaps other more experienced oolong-drinkers will disagree w/ me & can tell us which teas do give them such "qi".
I have been somewhat "tea-drunk" from long gong-fu sessions w/ greenish oolongs; & some strong darjeeling-type black & oolong teas have quickly given me a few minutes of "qi-like" feeling in my head; however, it is has never come close to the strong, fuller body feeling & long-lasting experience I've had w/ puer.
Perhaps you should post another thread describing what you want from tea & ask for teas that can deliver besides pu. (Hopefully, such tea
exists.)
+1 on the Thai oolong not providing flavor that lingers. It is cheap enough to drink more & more though.

[the_economist]

I think some oolongs have plenty of qi (or if you don't like mysticism, similar sensations to pu). Yancha, traditional tgy, even the green stuff. If you want something green, the Origin pick DYL from winter 2013 packs a pretty heavy qi punch for me, but it is sold out now.

Aged oolongs can have similar sensations to pu. This would include aged yancha, baozhong, tgy, dancong.

[Puerlife]

Thank you, economist, for answering the question Ethan suggested I ask. Perfect. Mysticism, qi, scientific explanations - I love it all because there are so many ways to approach tea. I will seek out these teas. Fortunately, my copy of "A Tea Lover's Travel Diary" by Jason C. S. Chen has just arrived so I can at least arm myself with knowledge of tie guan yin and phoenix single-tree oolong before I go to KL. But now I'm off to bed.

[BW85]

if you can find a good quality, traditional charcoal roasted, double baked TGY 4 + years aged, you will usually get some wonderful qi There is a lot of lower quality tieguanyin out there though, keep that in mind. the greener stuff is very easy and suitable to mass produce. but there is some good green TGY too.
and I'll second what's been said that some good yan cha or dan congs will definately bring on some wonderful feelings. probably any tea produced with skill will have at least some level of cha qi

[bonescwa]

I will third that any tea that has good quality (as far as I can tell) has been able to produce some mental effect on me. It's kind of like alcohol. Drinking a Trappist ale with the same alcohol content as a Bud Light is going to produce a very different somatic feeling.

[Puerlife]

+1 for all the great replies! This gives my search some much needed focus.