Batch 129 of the Eco-Cha Tea Club is an Alishan GABA Oolong Tea from Meishan Township, Taiwan. We are inspired to share this batch of GABA Oolong Tea simply because it's probably the most exemplary GABA Oolong Tea that we've tasted. We've enjoyed some very special GABA Teas over the last decade, and have shared them with the tea club in previous batches 32, 41, 74, 90, 106, and 117! You can read about these past editions here. These past batches were all produced by our favorite organic tea producer from whom we source our Eco-Farmed GABA Oolong Tea. This year's edition of GABA Oolong Tea has a more representative character from a standard Oolong Tea perspective. Here's the background story on this edition of the tea club.

This batch of GABA Tea is the culmination of five consecutive years of trial and error research conducted by a renowned Alishan Tea producer and a master roaster who also happens to be a fierce tea competition player. When we visited our friend (said master roaster), and he brewed this for us to taste, we were immediately inspired to share it with the tea club. It's the most refined profile of GABA Tea we have come across.

In a word, it's about integration. An integrated aromatic and flavor profile is when there are no particularly loud or off-key notes. There are notes to be heard (i.e. smelled, tasted, and conjured), but they're not chaotic, scattered, or clashing. To roll with this notes theme, integrated could also be called harmonious. Our source, the roaster said that it took many trials to figure out the GABA code. Given the wildly broad spectrum of GABA profiles we've encountered over the years, we readily accepted his testimony. We also accepted that the post production roasting was significant in cleaning up this profile and melding the less harmounious elements into a final integrated composition.

It's also quite encouraging (for GABA fans) that the demand for GABA Tea inspired a successful merchant (aka master roaster, competition celebrity) to invest in the research to represent this tea type. GABA is seen by many to be in its own arena. The majority of industry veterans aren't really interested in going there. So this edition of the tea club is also a recognition that GABA Tea is gaining momentum, and serious players are joining the GABA circuit. We think this is worth acknowledging as we get close to wrapping up our 11th year of the Eco-Cha Tea Club. Whoops! We didn't even mention one adjective about how this whole profile thing breaks down! Watch the tasting vid for the full detailed live description!

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