Before I begin my first oolong review, I must first confess that I'm partial to oolong teas. I think that within the oolong classification there is a an incredible variety of teas and flavors. I think that the best oolongs also have the greatest complexity.
The first oolong that I'm reviewing is from Hou De Fine Asian Art and Fine Tea. While I've had many oolong teas over time, this is the first so called "GABA" tea. There are supposedly health benefits from drinking GABA tea and it is somewhat popular in Japan. For those interested : http://www.allgabatea.com/. I drink tea because I like it so I'll just review this tea for its drinking pleasure and will leave the issue of health benefits to others.
The color of the dry tea is a greenish brown. It appears to have a medium level of oxidation. I brewed the tea for a couple of minutes with water around 200F (just below boiling or let it boil and then sit for a minute or two.) The brewed tea is an amberish brown. The flavor is different from any oolong that I've had before. The base flavor was almost like a very light black tea. It also has a very dry flavor; in fact the finish almost makes your mouth water. In particular the dry flavor seems to be most pronounced in the back/side of the tongue. I thought this was a very fine tea although it didn't have great complexity. It holds up particularly well to repeated steepings. The dry aspect holds up especially well. The tea liquor had good flavor through at least the 4th steeping (about 2 mins for the the first couple of steepings and getting progressively longer) and could be used for 5 steepings or more.
Cost: $21.25 for 4 oz.
Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 4.0/5
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