Gaba Chagao (resin) - GABA Tea extract

Tea, reduced to its essence.

Chagao (茶膏) is tea boiled down. Leaves are extracted and the liquid slowly concentrated until nothing remains but a dark, glossy resin that sets hard as amber. It was imperial tribute under the Qing — the emperor’s tea, portable and incorruptible — and it has been made more or less the same way ever since.

This one is made from GABA tea, processed anaerobically before extraction, which is why the result is round and sweet rather than sharp. Chagao made from ordinary tea can turn harsh when concentrated. This doesn’t.

How you actually use it

Drop a pellet in a mug, add hot water, stir for half a minute. That’s the entire process. No leaves, no gaiwan, no strainer, nothing to throw away.

It also dissolves in cold water, which matters here — stir a pellet into a bottle of cold water and you have iced tea with no brewing, no dilution from melting ice, and no bitterness from over-steeping. It travels well and it keeps for years.

Taste

Deep and dark in the cup, closer to the colour of coffee than tea. The flavour is concentrated malt and dried fruit with a cocoa edge, thick on the tongue, finishing clean and sweet. Use less than you think — one pellet in 200 ml is already a strong cup. Two makes something closer to an espresso.

How to prepare

Hot — 1–2 pellets in 200 ml of water at 90–95 °C. Stir 30–60 seconds until fully dissolved.

Iced — 1 pellet in 300 ml of cold water. Shake or stir, then leave two minutes for it to finish dissolving.

Strength — start with one. The resin is many times the concentration of loose leaf, and it’s easier to add than to take back.