Region · in India
Sikkim
Sikkim is a one-garden origin. The state sits directly north of Darjeeling on the same Himalayan ridge system, and effectively all of its tea comes from Temi, a single state-owned estate on a hillside above the Teesta. That makes it the rare Indian origin where the place, the estate and the brand are one thing, and where there is nothing to blend it with.
What grows here
Orthodox black tea in Darjeeling's flush structure, with smaller quantities of green and white, all from Temi. The cup is usually described in Darjeeling's vocabulary, muscatel and aromatic with notably low astringency, which is unsurprising given where the planting material came from.
The bushes
Temi was planted with cultivars carried over from Darjeeling, a few kilometres away across the Teesta, and that is the short explanation for why the tea tastes as it does. The state has no separate planting tradition of its own to set against it.
Harvest seasons
The same four-flush calendar as Darjeeling, because it is the same weather: a light first flush in spring, the prized second flush in early summer, monsoon leaf and an autumn picking.
What to look for
The interesting constraint here is legal rather than commercial. The Darjeeling geographical indication is drawn around named gardens in West Bengal, and Temi is over the state line in Sikkim, so a tea grown from Darjeeling cultivars in the same hills and picked to the same calendar has to be sold under its own name. Buyers who know that treat Sikkim as a route to Darjeeling character without the Darjeeling premium. There is also very little here to mislabel: with essentially one estate producing, a 'Sikkim tea' that is not Temi wants explaining.
How it got here
Temi was laid out in 1969, when Sikkim was still a kingdom under its own Chogyal rather than an Indian state, using Darjeeling expertise and Darjeeling planting stock as a government development project rather than a private plantation. It has been government-owned ever since. The other date that matters is 2016, when Sikkim completed a decade-long conversion and declared itself India's first fully organic state. That turned Temi's organic status into a matter of state policy rather than an estate's marketing decision.
Places in Sikkim
Named places inside Sikkim. The ones with a page of their own are links.