Organic Osmanthus GABA Oolong Tea (Spring 2018)

~5g/100ml

Dry leaves appearance – in between modern, bright green TGY and typical roasted ball-rolled oolongs that I’ve had, though it means closer to the former. There is a beautiful orangey-red tint.

Dry leaves smell – right away, I got the overpowering scent of Rice Krispies right after they’ve had milk poured over them. It reminds me of my bad childhood breakfasts lol. Strangely enough, I also got a slight, slight hint of sun-dried tomatoes.

Wet leaf smell – Rice Krispies again, but this time the milkiness is much more pronounced and there is a lovely undertone of spring wildflowers; there was also a slight hint of cacao from the second infusion onwards

Liquor – a bright yellow on the first infusion that gradually evolved into a lovely sunset orange as the session progressed

Texture – somewhat thin in the mouth, but extremely soft and creamy

Taste – the taste really translates to the smell on this one, and I can barely sense anything else, besides a sweetness as though I added sugar to the milk in the Rice Krispies. The taste takes me right back to drinking the last bit of sugary milk from the bowl. This is an interesting one.

Empty cup – a light creamed corn scent like good Ali Shan, but not quite as potent and obvious

Mouth finish – very, very lubricating; as soon as the sip goes down, the milkiness explodes on the palate and leaves a lingering sweetness

Wet leaves – beautiful and full rusty-red leaves that look thin and delicate, but are actually quite hardy. They almost feel like wax paper between the fingers.

Body feel – a strong, grounding qi that came on midway through the second cup; very calming and centering; a good tea to drink if you need to take a step back from life and reset yourself.

This tea is right up my alley; in fact, it may even be my favourite ball-rolled oolong I’ve ever tried – and that’s saying a lot. Though it’s a pretty straightforward tea that doesn’t evolve too much throughout the session, every aspect of it is so enjoyable that I don’t mind at all. I’m kicking myself for only getting 100g of it.

A few weeks ago I placed my first order with Taiwan Sourcing and was nervous it would take months to get here as there is a country-wide postal strike currently ongoing in Canada. To my pleasant surprise it arrived yesterday and it couldn’t have come at a better time because I am running extremely low on tea. Praise the tea gods!!!

For this session I used a 180ml gaiwan using 10g, one initial 10 second wash followed by a 10 second brew, increasing by 10 to 20 seconds for each additional infusion.
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Mmmmmmmmm. Mm. This is way more delicious than I thought it would be. I wanted to try some teas high in GABA for a few different health reasons and was expecting the value to be in the medicinal effects rather than the taste and experience. Clearly this tea provides both, and it’s absolutely glorious.

As described by TS themselves, this tea has a very strong sweet potato flavour. It actually tastes remarkably close to a classic holiday dish my family loves which is a sweet potato and marshmallow casserole (mashed potato on the bottom, baked marshmallows on top). After that first impression though the sweetness tastes less sugary and more of wildflower honey which makes sense given this is blended with osmanthus flowers. The liquor is a lovely shade of yellow, almost peach-like, and quite thin compared with some other oolongs I’ve tried. There is just absolutely no astringency, it’s smooth, and almost a bit cooling down the throat like mint in terms of sensation.

Later infusions of this tea bring out more savoury notes, still heavy on the sweet potato though. Remarkably there is a general pumpkin spice flavour towards the end, maybe cinammon and cloves or something. The overall taste is extremely clean with loads of depth and layers.

I can’t yet attest to the effects of the GABA as I imaging it takes a few days or weeks to build up in your system to have long lasting effects, but I will say this cuppa makes me incredibly relaxed, sociable, and feeling good. Highly recommend trying it!