“I am not interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea”: did Laozi say it?
Not in the Dao De Jing
No: “I am not interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea” is not in the Dao De Jing; Wikiquote gives it to the Tang poet Lu Tong, but we found no Chinese original.
I am not at all interested in immortality, only in the taste of tea.
The nearest lines in the Dao De Jing
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夫唯无以生为者，
Only those who do not live for living
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是贤于贵生。
are wiser than those who prize life.
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道之出口，
But when the Way is spoken,
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淡乎其无味。
it is bland and has no flavor.
Where it comes from
The line is in no chapter of the Dao De Jing. Wikiquote lists it among the sayings wrongly credited to Laozi and gives it to Lu Tong (卢仝), a Tang poet remembered for his love of tea. It names no poem, and we found no Chinese original and no first printing in English. Quote sites give it in several forms (“not interested in immortality”, “care not a jot for immortal life”), which points to a loose retelling rather than a translation.
A poem that says otherwise
Lu Tong's best-known tea poem, 走笔谢孟谏议寄新茶 (“Written in haste to thank the remonstrance official Meng for new tea”), counts seven bowls. The sixth 通仙灵, “reaches the immortals”; after the seventh he feels a cool wind rise under his arms, asks where Penglai, the island of the immortals, is, and wishes to ride the breeze there. In the poem, tea leads toward the immortals, not away from them.
What the Dao De Jing says
The book has no tea and no immortals. Chapter 75 does say 夫唯无以生为者: “Only those who do not live for living are wiser than those who prize life.” And chapter 35 says that the Way, when spoken, “is bland and has no flavor”.