Description
GABA Green Heart (佳葉龍綠茶) is new, unique and completely experimental Taiwanese green tea made from Qing Xin Gan Zi cultivar. This is the first ever batch made by the farmer and is sourced by us via our Taiwanese tea master. This GABA Green Heart tea has a wonderfully bold profile that is supremely sweet and fruity. It is definitely one of the most unusual green teas that we ever tasted! This hand picked and hand processed lot is from the March 2020 harvest from an organic tea garden.
The leaves of this tea are hand picked and then placed into a deoxidation vacuum machine used for producing GABA teas. During this processing oxygen is removed from the machine and the tea is left in it for 8 hours. From that point, the processing follows the usual green tea steps: frying to stop further oxidation, twisting and then drying in the sun. Following this the tea is finished in a drying machine to remove any residual moisture. This GABA Green Heart tea undergoes minimal oxidation when compared to GABA Oolong, resulting in a much lighter, greener taste and profile. The Qing Xin Gan Zi (青心柑仔) cultivar is normally used for making Oriental Beauty teas, but new experimental green teas made from this cultivar, such as our Qing Xin Gan Zi green tea are providing fascinating new ways of utilising these plants.
GABA Green Heart tea has large, wiry dark green leaves that have a pronounced fruity aroma that is reminiscent of wild strawberries. The liquor produced has a light champagne colour. The bright, sparkly flavours have pronounced sweet and fruity notes of red stone fruits, dried apricots and exotic fruits, such as longan. It has a creamy quality, leading to an overall mellow and smooth impression. There is no astringency or vegetal flavour normally associated with green teas and very minimal dryness. So this is a particularly drinkable tea, with the flavours really somewhere between a smooth green tea and a light fruity GABA Oolong. These is a touch of dryness on the aftertaste, that transforms into pleasant fruity tanginess. We got a strong association with the taste of strawberry fruit leather. This is a most surprising and outstanding green tea that we would encourage everyone to try!
It is best brewed at 80°C for 3 minutes according to your taste and should be brewed multiple times, increasing steeping time with each brew if desired. We also think this tea is particularly good cold, pairing well with food in place of fruity sparkling wine.