Tea Highs?!?

[NateHevens]

I know I don't post much. I'm a habitual lurker. It's true for basically every forum I belong to.

I'm seeing a lot (not just here) about these so-called "tea highs".

I've had a few highs in my lifetime: alcohol (obviously), marijuana, cocaine (once; never again; it was horrible)... even nicotine (I vape)!

But I have no idea what this supposed "tea high" is supposed to be. I'm very positive I've never experienced it. I can't even see a mechanism for how. Other than caffeine (which I don't count because it doesn't a darn thing for me until I overdose and get the shakes... but that usually takes adding caffeine pills to coffee, which I haven't done in years, or shooting back energy drinks, which I also haven't done in years), what exactly could interact with the brain like that?

Getting high is a chemical reaction, after all. With marijuana, we have cannabis receptors in our brains, which the THC interacts with. Nicotine causes brain vessel constrictions. Cocaine confuses dopamine and glutamate receptors. And so on...

What exactly is in tea that could also do something similar?

And what teas are people drinking to get this "high"?

Or is all this talk of a "tea high" just a weird analogy for that satisfied feeling of drinking something as refreshing as a good tea?

[BW85]

Perhaps a synergistic effect of the caffeine and theanine combined? I've never heard it referred to as a high though. Usually called qi. some people call it the tea's qi, where others think of it as your own qi that the tea get flowing (depends on your philosophical perspective )
For me it's strongest and most prevalent with sheng pu'erh. It still depends on how you're feeling, state of mind, and how closely you're paying attention to the tea and your body while drinking. You may experience it one day very strongly, and the next day with the same tea get very little.

[jayinhk]

It's a real phenomenon and strongest with good green tea for me. Especially Vietnamese Hmong green tea from wild assamica plants. Can't wait to visit Northern Vietnam in March!

[prezeus]

I experienced too. Mostly with Sheng puerh but also with Hong Cha. I agree too that it depends on the attention your paying to the experience.

[BW85]

I experienced too. Mostly with Sheng puerh but also with Hong Cha. I agree too that it depends on the attention your paying to the experience.

Yunnan hong cha or from other regions?

[NateHevens]

@BW85 If you ever look up Tim Minchin's 9-minute beat poem "Storm", you'll know my philosophical views.

I need to look up thianine. And then get my hands on some good Sheng Pu-erh... hm...

[Rui]

... and lows, specially when I have run out of my favourite tea at the time.