Vietnam GABA High Mountain Oolong Tea

I’ve been meaning to type this one up for a while and have just now gotten around to it.
I like this tea as a late afternoon daily drinker. Is it particularly complex or unusual? No. Does it get the job done? Absolutely. This was among the first Vietnamese teas I’ve tried, and I’m glad it was. It’s a solid hit of dried fruit and a great partner for some light meditation.
This is a nicely ball-rolled tea, though visibly less tight than most Taiwanese oolongs. Although I rinsed fairly thoroughly, I had some fannings come through in most steeps. The color of leaves is mostly a uniform date-brown, though the odd less-oxidized leaf is visible in the mix.
The aroma of the dry leaves is heavily dominated by a cocktail of dried fruit. In descending order of predominance, I picked up dates, apricots, bananas, and a hint of raisins. The honeyed sweetness and slight tartness are underpinned by the smell of date syrup.
The wet leaves preserve the base of dried fruit, mixing its individual components into a strong, candy-like fruit leather aroma. A very bright woodiness (perhaps akin to cork?) was also present in the scent of the wet leaves. From the third infusion on, I also detected a hint of pink peppercorns.
The leaves produce a clear, honey-light-brown liquor.
The flavor of the tea, like the aforementioned aromas, is dominated by a deep sweetness accompanied by a mild and enjoyable tartness, with dates and dried apricots at the forefront.
A particularly long final steep (#7, ~3 min) revealed an interesting digestive biscuit note.
This tea brings about a pleasant sensation in the mouth, with very mild astringency on the sides of the mouth quickly giving way to light juiciness and a sweet, clean finish.

The main takeaways from this session are – a very strong honey aroma; tart and comforting profile; lingering sweet aftertaste; a smooth, buttery texture; and a relaxing cha qi. It’s a very good tea, and although similar to some other GABA teas I’ve had, it does seem to also have its own personality.

The dry leaves really have an overpowering (but beautiful) honey scent, complemented by butter cookies. In the preheated pot, the aroma is more fruity with notes of passion fruit and pear. Wet leaves then smell of grape leaves, spices, and garlic. The taste is pleasantly sour and fruity with flavours such as grape, melon seed, and lime.

Looking back in my log book, I took some hasty notes with a 10g sample of the Autumn 2018 harvest purchased a month or two ago.

One brew was 5g stewed in my 20oz thermos for several hours. Delightfully tangy, sweet and fruity with berries.

The other 5g I dedicated to gongfu. I was able to pick apart the fruitiness into a dominant sweet-tart red raspberry-red apple-grape-rhubarb with other notes of blackberry, blueberry, red cherry, pear, white toast, baked bread, malt and butter. The minerality and salivation appeared very early and transitioned into a woodier, drier mouthfeel that when combined with the taste reminded me of apricot kernel. Juicy fruit aroma (not the chewing gum).
[5g, 100mL porcelain pot, 205F, rinse discarded due to sharp toastiness, good longevity]

This Vietnamese GABA definitely had that grape quality I find in most Taiwanese GABA oolong of a specific cultivar that at the moment is escaping me. However, this tea was more berry-focused; a nice departure from the floral grape I’ve been experiencing lately.

The flavor notes listed below are a combination of both brewing methods.

Wishlisted — I’ll have to buy a larger quantity next time!

I decided I couldn’t wait to retry this after drinking their delicious Taiwan GABA Oolong, so I made a cup of this. I couldn’t resist.

This one.

The flavor profile sings to me. Now my sample is all gone. Will be on my next order for sure. Maybe I should also try Taiwan GABA Heavy-Roast Oolong Tea since this one is slightly roasted. Hmm…. :)

Flavors: Apple, Baked Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Fruity, Malt, Raisins, Roasted

This is the last of the September reviews. As I have mentioned several times previously, the backlog really is shrinking at a steady rate. I should be all caught up in no time. Anyway, the low numerical scores previously assigned to this tea surprised me. I found it to be a more or less excellent Vietnamese oolong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of raisin and prune that were underscored by hints of cinnamon. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of baked bread, cream, malt, and brown sugar. The first infusion introduced aromas of roasted almond and honey along with a suddenly amplified raisin aroma. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of raisin, prune, honey, and cream that were chased by hints of baked bread and roasted almond. Subsequent infusions saw butter, pear, rose, nectarine, and tangerine zest aromas emerge. Malt, brown sugar, and cinnamon notes belatedly emerged in the mouth alongside stronger baked bread and roasted almond impressions as well as mineral, tangerine zest, butter, oat, apple, vanilla, nectarine, and rose notes. The final few infusions offered mineral, pear, tangerine zest, rose, and roasted almond notes that were backed by cream, butter, and baked bread hints.

This was an incredibly nice Southeast Asian GABA oolong that thankfully did not suffer in comparison to its Taiwanese peers. I still do not get the lowish numerical scores this tea has garnered in the past. Though I am clearly the outlier here, I found this to be a very worthwhile tea.

The dry leaves smell a bit floral and sweet reminding me of green tea.

1st Steep: The first steep brings a light floral and sweet flavor. The wet leaves smell of oats and barley.

2nd Steep: As the leaves begin to wake up it gets sweeter and more of a roasted flavor.

3rd Steep & beyond: The flavor gets a bit stronger and then tapers off into astringency when you hit the 5th.

This is a decent tea, nothing special in my opinion. I can’t recommend it, not that its bad. Just bland.

Smell coming from the wet leaves smells like a lot of oats, barley and cereal with a nice sweet greenness to it smells like it has a nice roast to it as well. On the first steep there isn’t a TON of flavor but I can tell that there is something good to come. The second steep has some definite notes of barley, replacing it is a nice baked cherry flavor. Some interesting acidity like a lime but without the sourness. The third steep is like the second but stronger. The rest of this tea will be taken on the road with multiple steeps stacked. I will review this tea again when I have another session with it. From the first three steeps I quite enjoyed the fruitiness coming from it along with the really interesting top acidic note.