[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_28":-5,"_38":-5,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58},"routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_9":10,"_11":-5},"book",{"_12":13,"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23},"currentUser","id","Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNzgzMzA","title","Qi: The Neuroscience, Chemistry, and Microbiology of Tea Meditation","state","published","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

A Nerd's Field Guide to Kung Fu Cha, Pu'erh Fermentation, and the Recursive Co-Creation of the Cup

What this book is

Qi is a peer-reviewed walking tour of what actually happens when an attentive nervous system meets a small cup of old leaves.

It treats cha qi — the felt \"tea energy\" reported by Gongfu Cha drinkers for a thousand years — not as mysticism and not as placebo, but as a physiological event that can be decomposed into measurable parts: dopamine prediction errors, alpha-band EEG, vagal afferents, short-chain fatty acids, anthraquinone metabolites, gallic acid, theabrownins, and the small army of fungi and bacteria that turn raw leaf into something the brain reads as medicine.

Every claim is traceable to a peer-reviewed paper, mostly indexed in PubMed/PMC. Every metaphor is paired with a mechanism. Where the literature does not yet support a claim, the book says so plainly.

Who it is for

Tea drinkers who want to know why the fifth infusion of an aged sheng feels the way it does — and want a real answer, not a poetic one.
Scientists, clinicians, and biohackers curious about gut–brain signalling, polyphenol pharmacology, fermentation microbiology, and the EEG signature of attentional states.
Meditators and contemplatives looking for an honest bridge between traditional practice and modern neuroscience.
Anyone tired of choosing between the romantic tea book (kettle, clay, lineage) and the reductionist tea book (milligrams of caffeine, ORAC units). This one keeps both.

Structure

Seven parts, thirty short chapters:

Neuroscience of Kung Fu Cha — prediction error, dopamine, exteroceptive grounding, alpha waves, the three-channel model of tea state.
Chemistry & Biochemistry — L-theanine, caffeine, polyphenols, catechins, tannins, GABA, volatile aromatics and aging.
Microbiome & Gut–Brain — the Sheng/Shu split, theabrownins as pseudofiber, SCFAs, TPH1, the vagal relay, and the recursive microbiome.
Fermentation Atlas — Sheng Pu'erh, Shu Pu'erh and wodui pile fermentation, Liu Bao with Eurotium, Hei Cha, Fu Cha, Anhua.
Water — why 95–99% of the cup is the variable nobody optimises; TDS, mineral chemistry, purification, and how to build brewing water.
Ceremony Cultures — China (Lu Yu, Gongfu), Japan (Eisai, Rikyū), Korea (Darye, Cho-ui), treated as historical objects with dates.
Recursive Co-Creation — the drinker as bioreactor, attention as the active ingredient, daily practice.

Plus references, glossary, and further reading.

How it was made

The book grew out of several years of essays the author wrote on Chainka and elsewhere — tasting notes that became research notes that became something book-shaped. It cites primary literature where it exists, animal models where it must, and traditional sources for everything they actually documented well (which is more than the reductionist literature gives them credit for).

It is draft v0.1 — argument-complete and citation-complete, still being polished and figured.

About the Author

Volodymyr Pavlyshyn writes at the intersection of neuroscience, microbiology, identity systems, and tea. Berlin-based. Long-time Gongfu Cha practitioner with a particular obsession for aged Sheng Pu'erh, Liu Bao, and the microbiology of post-fermented teas. He publishes ongoing tasting notes and research essays at Chainka, and writes more broadly on decentralized identity, agentic systems, and the architecture of attention.

This is his first long-form book on tea — and the one he wishes had existed when he started.

The cup is a small machine. This book is its manual.

","authors",[24],{"_12":25,"_26":27,"_28":29},"Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6UHJvZHVjdEF1dGhvci84MzkwOA","name","Volodymyr Pavlyshyn","user",{"_30":31},"avatar",{"_32":33,"_34":35,"_36":37},"url","https://d39qdlcrvnra4b.cloudfront.net/avatars/211223/medium/552391298_4018935778371189_3873749716184464813_n.jpg?1758620373","styleName","medium","exists",true,"shoppingCartId","shoppingCart",{"_12":71,"_72":73,"_74":37,"_75":76,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":37},"locale","en","readerTheme","light","constants",{"_69":70},"publishers",{"_65":66,"_67":68},"learnerOrganizations",[],"needsLocaleCookieSync",false,"announcements",{"_59":60,"_61":-5},"sentryEnvironment","production","sentryRelease","cce21d19a0d9612afdbced29947de1d8868e588b","announcement_store",{"_62":52,"_63":64},"announcement_authors","flag","text","

Kick off your book project, get started with GhostAI, get better at marketing, or spend the day doing all three! Free live workshops on Zoom. Saturday, June 27, 2026.

\n","companies",[],"universities",[],"paypalClientId","AX53Cwz8jR6rVVzzZiZNWWXl0dGagi-GZrjG-S3Ua14E5nrKMn7DxDQ730O4R8LusLPp49ALn6aRVaEy","no-cart","count",0,"free","updatedAt","","paymentGateway","STRIPE","cartItems",[],"loading"]

Email the Author