Description
We just got our hands on a really special micro-lot, and we are excited to pass it along to all of our tea fans at a discount price!
This high-quality single-estate black tea is very sweet, malty and mild, with honey notes up front and a moderate astringency that builds complexity with longer steeping, to eventually deliver a sharper mouth-feel and more robust profile, but still notably sweet and pleasant. It is just as perfect for a rich, fully steeped milk-and-sugar tea time energizer (British style) as it is for a more delicate treatment that produces a pretty peach-colored liquor and an enticing floral-malty aroma (Chinese style). A classic, perfectly-processed black tea, this sweet Sikkim is comparable to our popular Grand Keemun.
Temi Tea Garden is the only tea estate in the tiny province of Sikkim in Northeast India. Squeezed between Nepal and Bhutan and neighboring famous tea-producing regions Assam and Darjeeling, the estate sprawls over mountainous slopes surrounding an old Sherpa village. It is state-owned and is considered to produce some of the finest black teas in the world. Winner of several prestigious awards from the Tea Board of India, they employ entirely organic cultivation methods.
“Orange Pekoe” is a confusing label for tea. It is very important to note that there is nothing related to the orange fruit or flower in this tea. The old-fashioned British term simply indicates mid-grade tea leaves (compare to “Pekoe” leaves which are larger, tougher, and slightly more bitter). The “orange” quality of the leaves generally indicates that they were grown in ideal conditions but harvested later in the season and therefore contain few of the prized young buds or “tips” (compare to a high-grade early harvest, which might be called “Supreme Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe,” and be labeled with the ridiculous acronym “SFTGFOP”). “Broken” indicates that the leaves have been chopped to make them easier to put into convenient tea bags. It does not mean that the quality of the tea is less, but it does again significantly reduce the price simply because the tea does not look as attractive.
On close inspection of this “Broken Orange Pekoe” tea, you will notice that many of the leaves are orange-tan or silver colored, indicating relatively young leaves, minimal oxidation, and fresh mild flavors. You will never find another BOP like this one – even though this tea is considered mid-grade by the growers at Temi, it is one of the finest cups we have ever tasted.
Try this special tea while it is still in stock! And check back later – we look forward to trying to track down more premium products from this exceptional estate!
Steeping Time: 3 minutes
Water Temp: 212 F
Sikkim “Broken Orange Pekoe” tea
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