GABA tea
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The aroma of this tea is quite unusual: it may remind of the smell of fried seeds to one person or the flavor of a haystack in the meadow to another; it may even feel like something dried or smoked and some people will recall the smell of heated rubber. It is not similar to other teas. This also holds true for the taste: if you do not know in advance that it’s tea in the cup and not an unknown herbal infusion, then it’s difficult for a beginner to distinguish. People either fall in love with this tea or don't like it at all. If you never tried GABA tea, start with a sample or a small package.
If we will compare the impact of different teas with the effects of other "substances", then there’s a point to start with GABA. Its effect is intense, sweeping and is not darkened by complications. GABA tea dramatically improves mood. Its action weakens negative processes in the mind. As is the case with many other users, I already realized that myself. Consciousness becomes clear and you get less distracted. You don’t get irritated with the things that used to annoy you before. It relieves the psyche of tension.
The effect of GABA is manifested in the following way: various background processes, which are no longer relevant and sometimes unrecognized, die out. Memory traces, caused by psychic tension and unfinished and currently not important stuff, disappear. They roll away like smoke of diminished campfire at dawn.
The brain consumes more than half of the aggregate energy of the human body. It takes almost everything if a human being is in permanent stress or lives a hasty lifestyle. Imbalances of excitement and mental block present itself as insomnia, attention deficit, and anxiety. Procrastination is when you keep yourself busy with anything but what you need; you simply cannot force yourself. As a result, we become distractible, our thoughts wander aimlessly in the social media feeds, we quickly get tired and cannot rest.
The state after drinking GABA tea is perfect for the focused activities. At the same time, your teeth won’t be clenched and your stare won’t be fishy: you will be at ease and your mood will be happy. Alongside this, GABA tea improves sleep. After drinking it you will fall asleep on time and have a good night’s rest. Now I am cheerfully writing this text after having quaffed up four teapots like this one.
I will brew the same portion of tea many times with no loss in the drink’s quality. GABA tea reaches its potential after the fourth or fifth brewing, not after the first one. On the Internet, you can often encounter advice not to brew GABA tea longer than two minutes, but I like to do it a little longer (but only after the first three brewings). All the above is relevant only if the teapot is filled with real GABA tea.
How to buy fake GABA tea
It is easy. Original GABA tea is relatively expensive, and it’s being faked up by sprinkling oolong with GABA solution (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid). Will fresh cucumbers turn into pickles if you water them with saltwater? Tea that was poured with the amino acid solution is being flogged so and in no other way. You can buy a GABA mixture in a pharmacy by yourself, it is many times cheaper. You can pour it on anything you want: herring, soup, cake, add it into tea or cola. There is only one negative side – you won’t feel the effect of GABA tea. It's as if you mix grape juice with alcohol – like this you will get neither champagne nor Chablis.
What will happen to you if you drink a fake GABA tea? Don’t worry. GABA is a neurotransmitter of central inhibition processes and an antagonist of glutamate, which is an excitation mediator. It is endogenic, in other words, it is naturally produced by brain cells. 99% of synthetic GABA after penetration into the brain is not used by it as a natural inhibitory neurotransmitter. It simply cannot reach corresponding receptors; neurons gobble it up in their burners-mitochondrias, the same as glucose. You can drink any regular tea with sugar or honey and get the same result. If your goal is to surely release the brakes, you can use valerian.
In the human body, GABA is synthesized directly in the brain. The brain is protected from the rest of the body by the hematoencephalic barrier. Not only bacterias, but even large molecules cannot get through it. For the very reason, it is so difficult to treat brain disorders with medication, for example, meningitis: drugs simply do not overcome it. Unlike synthetic, natural GABA is well absorbed by the brain.
Unfortunately, rubbish-GABA tea includes all sauce-dipped synthesized products from mainland China. The Taiwanese version is a bit better: the tea is really fermented in an air-free space. This is a breakthrough, but it is not as good as Japanese GABA tea. This is a branded equivalent of Japanese Gabaron, and it should cost less. Taiwanese tea is delicious, beneficial and relatively inexpensive. By the way, the Taiwan Tea Manufacturers Association warns on its website that their teas are not offered for sale in China, including Aliexpress, so local junk is being sold under the guise of Taiwanese GABA.
Genuine GABA tea and its health properties
The original technique of its production is of Japanese origin. Genuine GABA tea, Gabaron, is made there. Taiwanese also liked that name, and they copied it. The content of GABA in good Japanese Gabaron is 50 times higher than in the average oolong tea - it is about 400 mg per 100 g of tea. This content is the highest among all types of food products.
Apart from that, Gabaron contains the highest amount of theanine and alanine compared to any other tea (often ten or more times). Theanine is an amino acid, a specific alkaloid of tea. Besides Gabaron we can find it in Polish porcini mushrooms. Many studies show that theanine offers a relaxing effect, but without an urge to sleep. It is perfect for meditation and for travel in traffic jams. It has been clinically proven that theanine has mood-improving and relaxing effect even upon schizoaffective patients. Experiments, which were conducted on both healthy and sick people, indicate that theanine in combination with caffeine helps to focus attention during a cognitive task. It’s efficient even for those who find it very difficult to stay focused. Successful fight against cancer in the early stages and against all tumors is also its proven benefit. Gabaron also contains an increased amount of alanine, another amino acid. Alanine provides the nervous system, brain, and muscles with energy.
Professor Tojiro Tsuchida invented Gabaron in Japan in 1984 and he was the first to prescribe it for his patients with high blood pressure. The professor conducted many experiments with the influence of various conditions on the fermentation of teas and discovered a technology that allows to greatly increase the concentration of GABA in the tea for therapeutic purposes. Natural GABA had a much more significant clinical effect on hypertensive patients as compared with the synthetic one. After discovering clinically defined accompanying effects, it turned out that GABA tea is indicated to treat hepatic injuries, diabetes, leukemia and in case of slow muscle growth.
How to buy a high-grade Gabaron
Nitrogen treatment of the tea leaves before steaming is a part of Gabaron making. I read in the professor Tsuchida’s exploratory development “Production of a new type tea containing a high level of GAMMA-amino butyric acid” that a certain combination of the nitrogen and carbon dioxide effects during anaerobic fermentation of tea allowed to increase the synthesis of GABA (by a factor of 52.4) and alanine. Of course, it is possible only under a set of certain technological conditions, for example, ph = 5.8. Natural glutamic acid, which can be found in the tea, is transformed into GABA under the influence of these conditions.
Broadly speaking, GABA tea is not something that can be tinkered in a village barn - you need a laboratory, biochemists and the production secret. It is possible that one of the success factors is raw materials - a local tea plant called Camellia japonica. Later on, owing to the technological enhancements, it was possible to experimentally increase the concentration of GABA above 1700 mg per 100 g of tea.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese manufacturers declare the concentration of GABA within a scope of 150 - 250 mg/100 g. Exploratory surveys of Chinese comrades showed that the Taiwanese Gabaron (28 different species) on average contains about 181 mg/100 g, while usual varieties of Taiwanese green tea (the sample list also comprised of 28 varieties) contain about 17 mg/100 g. This is also a leap forward!
Tea that was harvested in early May has a quarter higher GABA concentration than tea, which was collected in July. The best Taiwanese oolong Gabaron contains 12% more GABA than the best Taiwanese green tea Gabaron (246 versus 216 mg/100 g). Gabaron that was made in Taiwan from black tea contains only 81 - 176 mg/100 g on average.
The best Japanese varieties of Gabaron contain 300 - 400 mg/100 g. Japanese Gabaron is mostly produced in Shizuoka Prefecture. Tsuchida also lives in Shizuoka.
There is another important characteristic of Gabaron - the smell. The Japanese consider it quite unpleasant and at the beginning of the product commercialization, it was a strong deterrent to sales growth. It’s difficult to explain this smell, but it is even harder to misrecognize it. It resembles something between tar, pine sawdust, and Thai fish sauce.
In order to make tea not stinky, some attempts were made to heat it up (that’s why the nickname of GABA tea is “fried oolong tea”). The “aroma” was completely disappearing during heating, at 130-140 °C, but a significant part of the health properties also was gone. That’s why if Gabaron does not smell funky, then it’s usually not beneficial for health. The slightly smelling Gabaron was usually heated to 110-120 °C, and the GABA content is therefore reduced by 10-20%. I read about that in Katsushiro Hakamata's work “Anaerobically Treated Tea and Its Hypotensive Effects”. I like the smell of Gabaron the same way the jockey likes the smell of a horse.
How to brew and drink GABA tea
At some point, after the tea is already “open”, it becomes a little less vibrant with each new brewing. If you noticed that it loses the part of the flavor, then the exposure time should be extended. This is very individual, it depends on the volume of the teapot, on the amount of tea, on its type, on water temperature, and, most importantly, on your taste. Try to brew it more than one way and choose what you like best.
If the tea is already open and you leave it in the hot teapot (without water) for several minutes without spilling water on it, it will steep much better. This simple technique works very well.
Leave the boiling water alone for some time, do not pour it into a thermos immediately. Very hot water makes the taste rough and bitterness tends to appear. Boiling water (100 С0) reduces caffeine content in the tea as compared with the 85-degree hot water. For example: at this temperature, 71% of caffeine is extracted in one minute, regardless of whether it is fresh, steamed or dry tea leaves. When the tea is exposed for three minutes, up to 83% of caffeine is extracted.
Do not use the “wild” boiling water, it should only begin to bubble. If the water has already boiled, freeze it and use it after it melts. This will soften it and correct its molecular structure.
Check the prices of GABA tea
See which varieties of the original Gabaron from Japan and Taiwan can be purchased with a super quality guarantee.
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