Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rare Tea Republic
Tea Description:
This outstanding selection is rich and flavorful and offers excellent value. Sweet and creamy notes of caramel and Turkish apricot dominate a sweet and smooth liquor. This is a superb example of the quality achievable by skillful cultivation and manufacture and a fantastic every morning tea.
Jun Chiyabari FTGFOP1 Autumnal was an award winning tea at the North American Tea Championship.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is an outstanding tea! But then, I’ve come to expect nothing less from Rare Tea Republic. Every tea that I’ve tried from them thus far has been nothing less than stellar.
I never tried a Turkish apricot, but, this tea does have a certain fruity note to it that is similar to an apricot or a peach. It is sweet and luscious! The above description also suggests notes of caramel, and I’m tasting that too. However, the caramel tones here are different than ones I might experience in another black or even a pu-erh tea. This tea has a lighter body, and the caramel tones are not a heavy, “thick” kind of caramel taste, but instead, it tastes like hints of caramelized fruit: a sweet, light, vibrant taste that delights the palate!
This tea has many similarities to what I’ve come to know as Darjeeling-esque qualities, but, it doesn’t have that muscatel note. This does have the light crispness of a Darjeeling, however, and a similar dry note toward the end of the sip. The aftertaste is sweet and slightly fruit-like.
Overall, I found this to be a remarkably refreshing and delicious tea, one that I think should be on the MUST TRY list of every tea aficionado!
Castleton Autumn Oolong from Rare Tea Republic
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Rare Tea Republic
Tea Description:
This rare terracotta-toned oolong has lightly worked leaves that offer a wide range of sweet and woody notes including chestnut, parsnip and Autumn leaves. There is a satisfying mineral quality in the finish suggestive of a Wuyi Rock Oolong.
Castleton Estate’s altitude and specific location in southeastern Darjeeling keeps this garden constantly veiled in mist. It is the resulting slow leaf growth that makes Castleton’s teas some of the most flavorful in the region.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is an exceptional tea. I find myself savoring every sip … and while I find it difficult not to raise my cup to my lips immediately for another sip, I want to wait … linger over the deliciousness of it, relishing every moment this tea has to offer. Yes … this tea is that good.
The flavor is remarkable. It starts out very Darjeeling-esque: a crisp muscatel, sweet grape notes mid-sip with a dry wine-like finish. Woody tones throughout the sip. As I continue to sip, the Oolong notes begin to reveal themselves, reminding me of a very fine Formosa Oolong or perhaps a Wuyi. It has a lovely sweetness, peach-like, with a light earthiness and a soft mouthfeel that starts out very light and develops as I continue to sip.
The astringency is remarkably light. It starts out a bit stronger, but as I continue to sip, the softness of the Oolong notes curb the edge of the astringency, making it almost non-existent. The finish is clean, with lingering grape notes in the aftertaste.
Rare Tea Republic continues to impress me with their amazing teas. This one might just be the most impressive yet.
Doke Premium Silver Needles from Rare Tea Republic
Tea Type: White Tea
Where To Buy: Rare Tea Republic
Product Description:
Large, downy needles produce a sweet and creamy, full-bodied golden liquor with notes of peach blossom and dried apricot. This is a unique selection from a little-known origin. Plucking date: August 10, 2011.
Tasters Review:
This tea – Doke Premium SIlver Needles from Rare Tea Republic – is pretty awesome…I must say! It’s silver needle – but – milkier! It’s quite creamy and a bit sweet! I could pick out the apricot notes they speak of in the description and I LOVE that! It’s very delicate and pretty. The peach notes are picked up on the end sip and on to the aftertaste.
I really think this is one of my fave silver needles to date! It’s TRULY Spectacular!
Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Evergreen from Rare Tea Republic
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Rare Tea Republic
Product Description:
Beautifully crafted leaves and well-balanced flavor speak to Jun Chiyabari’s mastery of the art of tea making. This splendid selection, grown ecologically in Nepal’s Dhankuta district, is a tea with a rich, buttery aroma, a smooth mouth-feel and a sweet, clean flavor reminiscent of asparagus and lemon. Plucking date: May 15, 2011.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a fantastic green tea.
The above description is pretty spot-on. I can taste the notes of asparagus and lemon, in fact, that is exactly what I tasted when I first took a sip, before even reading the description. It reminded me of asparagus that had been steamed with thin slices of lemon on top; the lemon slowly infusing into the asparagus as it becomes tender from the heat. I can even taste a hint of butter in there. YUM! 
The mouthfeel is light and silky soft, and there is just a hint of astringency at the tail that cleans the palate, and imparts a tangy note that further emphasizes the aforementioned lemon-y notes.
Overall, this tea tastes incredibly fresh and light. It’s an invigorating kind of tea, one that is an absolute pleasure to sip. Very rich in flavor and texture, but at the same time, it has such a crisp, uplifting kind of feeling to it.
This is an absolutely wonderful green tea – highly recommended!
Temi SFTGFOP1 First Flush from Rare Tea Republic
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Rare Tea Republic
Product Description:
This excellent first flush tea delivers a rich liquor with sweet floral notes and creamy undertones. Hints of juicy pineapple are apparent in this well balanced selection. Plucking date: April 19, 2011.
Taster’s Review:
OK, let me say it right now. I’m LOVING Rare Tea Republic. First of all, their packaging is really cool. Not necessarily the box that it was shipped in, or even the pouches that they packaged their samples in. It’s the “packing peanuts.” That’s right. I saying I love their packing peanuts. They aren’t the typical Styrofoam peanuts, or even the new biodegradable cornstarch peanuts… these are little, light-weight (cardstock weight) cardboard bits that have been folded into a dimensional triangle. I love them because they ARE biodegradable, and beyond that, they’re even recyclable and perfectly acceptable to toss into the recycle bin! But, I plan on re-purposing them and turning them into a holiday decoration of some sort (add that onto my list of art projects!)
And… that’s just me excited about the packing peanuts! I haven’t even gotten to the best part about Rare Tea Republic – their TEAS! This First Flush Darjeeling from the Sikkim region is absolutely delightful. The freshness of this tea is apparent from the flavor: it tastes light, crisp and very fresh. 
I would classify this as a medium-bodied tea because of it’s light-weight feel to the palate, but it offers an astonishing amount of flavor for a medium-bodied tea. So many beautiful layers of flavor to this complex Darjeeling: in one sip, I note floral tones, a hint of earth, a musky wood-tone, and an outstanding fruit note. Yes I can taste the pineapple as mentioned in the above description, but there’s something else too. Something that tends to be pretty important to those of us who love Darjeeling: Muscatel! Yes, I am getting that distinct muscat grape taste to this, but, there is a surprising smoothness to this too. I don’t taste much astringency, something that I generally prepare myself for when I sip a Darjeeling … it is quite unnoticeable in this cup.
This is an excellent Darjeeling – one that I would say stands out amongst even the best Darjeeling teas that I’ve tasted. In fact, I even rated it 100 on Steepster. Yes, it’s that good. I highly recommend it to those who like Darjeeling, and I would even recommend this to those who have tried Darjeeling in the past and felt it was not for them. I think this one can change your ideas about Darjeeling.