Thanks Togo for the swap :)
Have a song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIMKJ43TFLs
Spring 2018 harvest. Dry leaf has an aroma of malty molasses cookies with additions of baking spices and a fruitiness when warmed. Smells like a hearty banana bread, though light on the banana. Rinsed leaf aroma is dominantly woody. I can smell light florals not on the inhale but when I exhale. Drank the rinse — subtle spruce and malt. Cool in mouth, warm in chest. Throat is already tingling like a strong returning sweetness will come forward. Already an aftertaste of peach and both black and green plantains.
The tea doesn’t change much in character like other GABA oolong, which I consider a strength. Buttery, floral grape aroma. SIp hits the high tones with floral grapes. The liquor is oily and the flavors sit low, with a light malty spiced banana bread midtone, deep fruity undertone, minerals, a bit of vanilla, straw when cooled. In fact, the flavors, which are more aromatic than penetrating on the tongue, become more pronounced if the tea cools to somewhere around 160F. Tangy aftertaste like light, sweet lemon and profuse salivation, brown sugar returning sweetness. Later develops hints of baked bread and cream in the aftertaste. Final infusions end on nutty, woody impressions. Like other GABA oolong, this has great longevity. I liked that characteristics of this tea’s Alishan provenance were still discernable despite the GABA processing.
I also did a grandpa infusion with the remaining 2g for 8oz with 3 top-offs. It was even more mellow with a rock sugar like sweetness. It was honestly difficult to describe. Maybe like a salty, soft and buttery white sweet potato? Comforting. The one major difference with this preparation was a complete lack of that floral grape flavor and aroma.
I love GABA oolong teas. They’re generally accessible, mellow and sweet with no bitterness or astringency. They can’t be oversteeped and perform great as western, grandpa or gongfu infusions. So let me take this moment to 100% endorse GABA oolong to loose leaf newbies!
Drink GABA oolong!
Flavors: Banana, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Cinnamon, Cookie, Cream, Floral, Fruity, Grapes, Lemon, Malt, Mineral, Molasses, Nutmeg, Nutty, Peach, Pine, Salty, Smooth, Straw, Sugar, Sweet Potatoes, Tangy, Vanilla, Wood
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
I love GABA oolongs too, Derk :D
I have some different ones coming from What-Cha weeee
I’m honestly not sure what the GABA stands for here, but all I can think of when I hear this are my colleagues’ Masters projects, because whatever they were researching (plant agriculture – apples?) involved gamma-aminobutyric acid. And although the same thing may be what’s being referred to in both cases, it causes some pretty solid confusion for me. I should probably just do some light research on it to fix that…
You have it right — GABA does stand for gamma-aminobutyric acid. These teas are flushed with nitrogen and ‘oxidized’ in an oxygen-depleted fermentation chamber. This process, combined with shading prior to harvest, increases the GABA content in teas. There is of course a slew of research on the effects of GABA for which I’m not currently interested in reading… but from some cursory browsing, it is agreed upon in some literature that when ingested, GABA does not cross the blood-brain barrier.
That said, anecdotally, I have found that all but one GABA-processed tea I’ve tried have consistently given me a specific feeling of well being, different from the feelings acquired from other oolong teas. It could all be wishful thinking, though, given the blood-brain barrier argument and that ‘tea energy’ is qualitative.
As an aside, I used to work in produce when I was younger. There I learned that bagged lettuces and salads are also flushed with nitrogen in order to diminish oxidation, thus preserving the leaf longer. Same for potato chips and other crunchy bagged snacks.
I love GABA oolongs too, Derk :D
I have some different ones coming from What-Cha weeee
I’m honestly not sure what the GABA stands for here, but all I can think of when I hear this are my colleagues’ Masters projects, because whatever they were researching (plant agriculture – apples?) involved gamma-aminobutyric acid. And although the same thing may be what’s being referred to in both cases, it causes some pretty solid confusion for me. I should probably just do some light research on it to fix that…
You have it right — GABA does stand for gamma-aminobutyric acid. These teas are flushed with nitrogen and ‘oxidized’ in an oxygen-depleted fermentation chamber. This process, combined with shading prior to harvest, increases the GABA content in teas. There is of course a slew of research on the effects of GABA for which I’m not currently interested in reading… but from some cursory browsing, it is agreed upon in some literature that when ingested, GABA does not cross the blood-brain barrier.
That said, anecdotally, I have found that all but one GABA-processed tea I’ve tried have consistently given me a specific feeling of well being, different from the feelings acquired from other oolong teas. It could all be wishful thinking, though, given the blood-brain barrier argument and that ‘tea energy’ is qualitative.
As an aside, I used to work in produce when I was younger. There I learned that bagged lettuces and salads are also flushed with nitrogen in order to diminish oxidation, thus preserving the leaf longer. Same for potato chips and other crunchy bagged snacks.