Batch 129 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Alishan GABA Oolong Tea, spring 2026 harvest at 1200m elevation in Meishan Township, Taiwan. The guy at the center of the photo above is a master tea roaster and renowned merchant in the industry here. Several years ago, he began cooperating with his source of Alishan High Mountain Oolong Tea to learn how to make a high quality GABA Oolong Tea. It took them five years of making a spring batch of Qing Xin Oolong tea leaves to finally produce a GABA Tea with the composition they were aiming for. Read our tasting notes blogpost and watch the video for the full scoop!

Mr. Xie has been our ongoing source of several types of tea for over a decade. He is especially talented in two ways. The first is that he knows how to recognize a quality tea when he tastes one. This is the basis of his impressive track record of winning dozens of high ranking awards over the course of his career. Secondly, what has mostly gained him a reputation is his skill at roasting tea. In addition to making some of the best quality roasted Oolong available, in recent years he has applied this skill to Black Tea, Hong Oolong, and now — GABA Tea. We choose to add the term "Oolong" in naming this tea since it was made using Oolong Tea processing methods, with one unique innovation. The leaves must be oxidized in an oxygen-free atmosphere in order to produce higher amounts of GABA.