GABA Tea: Fact or Fiction?

Great article. Although the tea weirdo in me still wants to try it just for the sake of trying it:)

Sure- give it a try, if anything just to assess the taste! Luckily, its one of the cheaper formosa’s, so wont hurt the bank too much! Note that teafromtaiwan.com has sample packs you can order, with free shipping!

Very interesting article! I’d never heard of GABA tea, but I generally take claims about tea and other food/liquid’s health benefits with a grain of salt. I’m just pessimistic that way ;)

T-ching just had a great post [http://www.tching.com/2010/10/unique-health-benefits-of-organic-gaba-oolong-tea/] about GABA oolongs. I did a little digging and learned that GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) may increase levels of human growth hormone (HGH.)

There is actually a lot of science behind it. Japanese have studied it for many years. GABA tea has a strict cultivation procedure and the final product must contain at least 150ml GABA content in every 100g tea. There are institutes to analyze and certify GABA tea. Since it’s supposed to be a healthy tea and needs certification, many growers would just do it all, cultivate it with organic procedure and get organic certification as well.

There have been a lot of research papers from Japan about healthy benefits of GABA. I personally believe human body is a extremely complicated system, eating some healthy compound doesn’t always directly lead to visible healthy outcomes. So I think the taste of tea is always more important than its “healthiness”. GABA tea has, emm… quite unique taste. Some people love it, some people don’t.

Here is a review I wrote about a GABA tea from Taiwan.
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2010/07/concept-tea-3-certified-organic-taiwan.html?showComment=1281014264119

I make Organic GABA Oolong Tea with a cold infusion in the refrigerator with organic lemon and a little mint and grapefruit. We drink it by the gallon. It is naturally sweet and delicious. It’s totally refreshing! I buy the GABA tea from www.GABATeaShop.com