Somewhat oolong-like, with an herbaceous aroma and a mellow, slightly savory flavor. The flavor and mouthfeel of this tea are particularly interesting...it's a bit peppery and spicy, yet smooth overall, with some honey-like sweetness. Although the other Sikkim teas I've tried prior to this one have been rather Darjeeling-like, this tea was quite unlike Darjeelings.

This is the second tea I've tried from Temi estate; the first was a broken-leaf tea from Upton. Like the other tea I've tried from Temi, this one had a muted, greener character. However, unlike that tea, this one was oddly reminiscent of Yunnan black teas (Dian hong), sharing a few peculiar aspects of the aroma, and a peppery quality.

There is a marked absence of the familiar grape-like tones exhibited by most Darjeelings. However, this tea is a first flush from last year's harvest (2011) so there is a possibility that the tea originally had some of these qualities. The aroma is hard to describe, mostly of herbs, with some spicy tones, and some slightly vegetal and floral qualities. The floral qualities are more reminiscent of green oolongs than of black tea.

Even brewing western-style for 4 minutes, the leaf was able to produce a second, quite flavorful cup. The second cup tasted a lot like the later infusions of a medium-roast Tie Guan Yin: herbaceous and full-bodied.

This tea is also easy to brew. I tried upping the brewing temperature (of both infusions) to near boiling, and it came out fine. This tea seems somewhat pricey to me, but factor in that it is good for multiple infusions, less leaf than you'd expect is necessary to get a flavorful cup, and this tea is definitely towards the more interesting side of things, as black teas go.

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