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I kinda have this idea that while psychedelics like LSD are the easiest to catch a ride with, it is specifically tea that can get you furthest. When I was reading "Dream of the Red Chamber" some of the descriptions of tea drinking were really psychedelic, like being transported into a different realm of heavenly purity that permeates everything with effortless perfection, etc. Certainly I never experienced anything like this with any drug.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleutherococcus_senticosus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra_(plant)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideritis , especially https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideritis_scardica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chifir

What’s in that tea? Something more than caffeine if people are taking trips with it.

Green tea also contains l-theanine, which interacts with caffeine uptake. Anecdotal but after having a pot of tea at a tea shop in Sheung Wan in Hong Kong I was high as a kite for a while afterwards in a way I’ve never experienced before or after, although I wouldn’t describe it as psychedelic - more stimulant.

Getting "Tea Drunk" is a common pursuit for many fine tea drinkers, myself included. My partner and I enjoy cultivars that give you a buzz. I went down a rabbit hole in trying different varieties and we found some that can only be drunk at the end of the day after work, else you'd write off the rest of the day. We had an aged white tea once that made us giggle like we were on shrooms, without all the overwhelming side effects or fear of a "bad trip".

I started watching "Mei Leaf", who's a YouTuber with a deep knowledge of tea and gong fu style brewing specifically and was hooked. He's got a video on getting tea drunk specifically that made me hunt the feeling initially: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrLaKX9J8Uo

Wow did not realize this was a thing. Thanks for sharing this video.

OT but the host is using some kind of phone app to pull autofocus … anyone know what that is?

Adding my own experience, I take 200MG L-Theanine supplements daily and there is a noticeable calmness. It used in combination with Caffeine a lot to soothe the jitters. There isn't a known LD50 and I've taken up to 600MG, at best I can say it's borderline euphoric. Nowhere comparable to LSD even at the 20MCG level

That's correct. Puerh tea particularly has very strong "ChaQi" which is (part of) why people prize it so much. Some other teas have it as well, and it's really not just caffeine but something much more interesting and deeper. Real ancient tree puerh (for example [1]) or very old tea are excellent examples of teas with a lot of ChaQi

[1] [link redacted] Edit: both the site and the rambling about this tea and its ChaQi are mine (it's the best example I could think of from the top of my head)

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