Temi SFTGFOP1 First Flush Sikkim

Wow, I knew I was in for a treat when I smelled the dry leaf in the bag and it is already smelling kind of pineapple-ish. I steeped this at 3.5 minutes at around 195 F. I wish I knew where my thermometer was. My water was not quite boiling so I assume it was around 195.

I wonder, is this technically a darjeeling if it’s from Sikkim? The second flush Sikkim from Rare Tea Republic was beyond amazing in my opinion, and this one is excellent also. It’s very light bodied with a slight floral nose. The tea itself is very fruity, pineapplish and actually on the sweeter side with a bit of sandalwood/earth. I’m so used to these darjeeling type tea being very astringent with lots of tannins but this is exceptionally smooth and mellow. It’s easy to drink plain on it’s own. I’m with LiberTeas, I thought it was superb. Mmmm, I think I’m going to go make another cup right now!

I will definitely be going back to Rare Tea Republic as a customer.

Thank you LiberTEAs!!!!

This was a mighty fine Darjeeling! Certainly one for the books! VERY Memorable! It had some lovely fruity notes…not really the “average yet unidentifiable of individual fruit notes” per say but I could taste a mix of pineapple and maybe flower blossoms of some sort…it was quite nice. There was a nice sweeter wood accompaniment to it too! Not overly-so, tho! Amy mentioned Sandalwood…I agree!

This is FAB!

AWESOME! A totally excellent Darjeeling. One of the very best I’ve ever tried.

This has a fantastic fruit tone (yes, I taste the pineapple). There is a lovely muscatel to this tea as well. Nice floral tones. Notes of warm earth and wood too. Sweet and very pleasant. Very VERY pleasant.

If you love Darjeeling, you should try this one. Even if you’ve tried Darjeeling in the past and decided it wasn’t for you, you should try this, because it could just change your mind. Everyone should just TRY THIS DARJEELING.

Of all the teas I recently got from RTR, this is the one I chose to actually get 50g of, rather than just a sample. People here seemed to really like it, and I wanted to have at least one Darjeeling around for a bit, rather than only samples.

After several cups, I found this works best with a 1g/1oz ratio….at least, today I went with that and it definitely yielded the best cup thus far.
I bet it would be hard to get this tea to be overly astringent, or even bitter at all.

It has a very refreshing astringency, a flash of juicy-sweetness, and definitely a hint of pineapple (I was paying attention for these things, since it was mentioned several times). It has a nice aroma and is really a great black tea.

I’m probably rating this the highest of the teas I’ve had from RTR so far, but, I’m not sure if it is my favorite. That would probably go to Thurbo 1st flush (or to their Tumsong 2nd flush, surprisingly). However… I still have two more to try, so we’ll see!

I felt like a Sikkim this morning. Heck, I always feel like a Sikkim. Sure, it’d been awhile since I had it, but it felt like a Temi sorta day. Just like the last two times I dipped into this, it brewed amber, had a Darjeeling-ish spicy note to it, but also possessed a fruity underpinning. Great way to start the morn.

My only regret is I never got to try a Temi 2nd Flush in 2011.

Original Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2012/01/28/review-rare-tea-republic-temi-sftgfop1-first-flush/

I think I am reviewing the same tea as the others. This is from the 2012 harvest, and was purchased from the Republic of Tea website, as the Rare Tea Republic site no longer exists.

I wrote a nice long review of this, and then Steepster had one of its issues. I’m not going to rewrite it all. I will say that this is a good tea for sitting back and watching the wheels…