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Organic GABA Green Tea
Starting at $ 4.80
Green tea and GABA tea coined into a single tea’s name, really?… Sounds like a clever marketing ploy, or is this a blend of some sort?… The answer is neither. It’s actually the best way to describe the hybrid process that results in this novel tea. After picking, the leaves are allowed to wilt indoors for a short while. Afterwards, they are bagged and slid into vacuum chambers to undergo what can best be described as oxygen deprived oxidation (more information on this process is in this tab below). After many hours, the leaves are taken out to be panned to stop the oxidation process and dried. The result is this beautifully curled-leaf tea which boasts several shades from green to brown and reveals a golden green liqueur. If you’ve reached that step in the preparation of this tea you would have also been challenged by its indescribable exotic aroma. Our immediate references are local fruits like our Taiwanese plums or shi jia 釋迦, a local fruit that we savour in the spring time. It is known in English as apple custard or apple sugar fruit. The name says it all! It has a creamy custard like sweetness and tangy crisp apple-like fruitiness that is sure to please. In the cup, this tea is unique as can possibly be! It is very fruity and buttery with a crisp, slightly tart, but never bitter. It’s a must try for all Taiwanese tea enthusiasts whether you like oolong, green or black teas! As it is our usual practice, we have a marked preference for spring GABA tea as opposed to other seasonal offerings – spring tea is usually fruitier and more aromatic. As a Pre-Qingming tea, Lot 1204 was made from the very first picking of tender shoots in the very early stages of the spring tea season for even more finesse to the palate and nose. Lot 1256 was produced in September as a very small lot that benefited from small tender shoots rendering a smooth creamy texture. This tea is produced exclusively for us under our supervision by one of our long time collaborators and available only on Taiwan Tea Crafts!
GABA Tea is one of a rare bread of teas that was initially developed, not only for its resulting drinking enjoyment, but rather for its purported health benefits. We personally think that the best thing about GABA tea is that it is wonderfully good in the cup! This tea is one of the most accessible, easy drinking teas we propose. The special, oxygen-deprived environment that increases the content of GABA while oxidising the leaves, also smoothes out the tannins leaving a crisp, slightly tart, but never bitter feeling in the mouth. The nose is all fruit, field berries to be more precise. As soon as hot water is poured on the leaves, a wonderfully inviting aroma of wild strawberries jam and ground cherries invites us to taste the cup. Generous and refreshing, GABA tea not only makes a beautiful hot beverage, it is fantastic as a refreshing iced tea! Similar to high-mountain fragrant oolongs, we select our Gaba lots from the colder seasonal productions of spring and winter. They give the most exuberant wild field berry notes and distinctive wild strawberry aroma with a smoother finish.
Recently introduced in the 1990’s, GABA tea was developed by Dr. Tsushima Tojiro of Japan’s National Tea Experiment Station. His work resulted in a procedure that increases the content of γ-Aminobutyric acid, or gamma-Aminobutyric acid, or even simpler, GABA, the acronym of the term.
GABA plays a role in regulating neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. Because of its calming and soothing effects, GABA helps to lower blood pressure, helps to control hypoglycaemia, prevents anxiety and promotes restful sleep. To an extent, it also regulates appetite, which is helpful in maintaining an optimal body weight.
In addition, GABA is also directly responsible for the regulation of muscle tone. Many clinical studies have shown that the ingestion of GABA releases human growth hormones with remarkable effectiveness, especially after exercise. The release of growth hormones is known to increase lean body mass. Consequently, GABA tea is an invaluable nutritional supplement for body builders, power lifters, runners, martial artists, and athletes of all types
All teas have health-promoting compounds, but GABA tea has a very concentration of anti-oxidants, including catechins, flavanoids, and polyphenols. Anti-oxidants are helpful in fighting many types of disease including: cancer, Parkinson’s disease, senility, drug-induced deafness, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
4 reviews for Organic GABA Green Tea
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benmaconick (verified owner) –
Very interesting tea! Has that classic fruity (prunes and apples to me) almost pumpkin-ey taste that GABA teas usually have but delivered in the package of an also very “fresh” tasting green tea. You don’t usually get a very “fresh” feeling from most GABA teas so that’s what makes this quite unique. The mouth feel is also thick and creamy betraying the Jin xuan cultivar. Although I suppose I would query if this really is a green tea when it has been oxidised (albeit it in an oxygen deprived environment)? Maybe it is better though of as a sort of oolong?
Denis Pyshev (verified owner) –
Very interesting, novel one to me.
This tea aroma reminds me rosehip (very light, not as syrupey as it is usually availale). It does’t taste like your regular green tea obviously, but this new taste and aftertaste are fresh and desiable.
rudyhou (verified owner) –
Brief steeps (few seconds) in 90 degree Celsius water.
Liquor is clear with a pale yellow in hue.
Taste is fruity sweet in flavor with a clean aftertaste.
Mouthfeel is slightly sticky with no astringency nor bitterness.
Wet leaves are olive green in color giving off a sweet fruity scent similar to apricot, green plums and green apple.
This tea has almost none of the typical ‘green’ flavor that one usually gets from a regular style green tea, but the fruitiness in flavor is a welcomed addition that I really like.
It also withstands many infusions. The flavor intensity starts to mellow down by the 7th/8th infusion, thus best to increase the infusion time from here onwards.
Michael Cohn (verified owner) –
I don’t know if any of the health claims for GABA tea are valid, but I do know that this is the only green tea I have ever liked. Others I’ve tried all tasted vegetal. This tea is luscious, sweet , creamy and fruity like an exotic tropical melon or fruit. In the past whenever I bought any green tea to try, after the first brewing it sat in the tin for ages, left for guests who might ask for it. But this one I’ve already reordered a second time and will definitely keep buying.