Today’s review is Mountain Stream Tea’s 2018 Winter Wild Garden GABA Oolong. This GABA is a little different than the usual GABA teas as it is from a wild tea garden and promised to not be sour like other GABA Oolongs. That sourdough off taste is something I’ve grown to dislike in GABA tea, so I am looking forward to this.
I purchased this tea on a whim with my first Mountain Stream order.
Leaf and Steeping Method
The leaf smells roasted sweet potatoes and a bit fruity. Some sniffs are pumpkin like.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, gongfu steeped in boiling water. The hot rinsed leaf smells like sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving.
Tasting of Mountain Stream Tea’s 2018 Winter Wild Garden GABA Oolong
First, Second, and Third Infusion: The Wild Garden GABA Oolong tastes like sweet potato pie. It is strongly yammy to sip with a gooey caramel square aftertaste. Some sips taste like plump rehydrated raisins. The texture is slick and oily feeling in the mouth. The caramel sweet aftertaste doesn’t linger long but tastes great.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: Wild Garden GABA Oolong is wild and complex. The flavour is straight up caramel with the heavy cream and a knob of butter stirred in. I love the buttery caramel going on, which lingers as the aftertaste. Some sips have a bit of a golden raisin taste, but I find the main flavour is butter.
Eighth Infusion: The last infusion I did for 10 minutes. I got a clearer golden raisin note, complete with that slightly tart skin, but nowhere as sour and bready as GABA oolongs can be.
Gorgeous leaves here.
Comments
Oh my, Mountain Stream Tea’s Wild Garden GABA Oolong is one of the best GABA oolongs I’ve had in my life with its buttery, heavy cream caramel and fruity raisin notes. Nicely thick tea with awesome quality leaves. There is no sour taste in this GABA.
I immediately bought more. This is my kind of tea as I have a sweet tooth and love the sweet buttery oolong that is present in an oolong that isn’t vegetal tasting like a Lishan or JinXuan.
However, looking at other’s reviews this particular GABA Oolong is all over the place stating flavours of mint, floral, and blueberries. I am not sure WTF is going on, though in my case this tea had settling time and I am boiling it. I’ve since drunk all of my initial purchase and the tasting notes were consistent.
