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Remember that tea grades are not standardized, so they may vary widely according to country or region of origin. Also, tea grades do not necessarily indicate quality. The acronyms found below describe the dry leaf's appearance, not its taste. Taste, after all, is in the tongue of the beholder.
Terms Describing BLACK TEA GRADES (ORTHODOX TEA) | |
WHOLE LEAF | |
FP | Flowery Pekoe |
FTGF OP | Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe |
TFG OP | Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe |
TGF OP 1 | Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1 |
GF OP | Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe |
F OP | Flowery Orange Pekoe |
OP | Orange Pekoe Broken |
BROKEN | |
BOP1 | Broken Orange Pekoe One |
GFBOP | Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe |
BPS | Broken Pekoe Souchong |
GBOP | Golden Broken Orange Pekoe |
FBOP | Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe |
DUST | |
OPD | Orthodox Pekoe Dust |
OCD | Orthodox Churamani Dust |
BOPD | Broken Orange Pekoe Dust |
BOPFD | Broken Orange Pekoe Fine Dust |
FD | Fine Dust |
D-A | Dust A |
Spl. D | Special Dust |
GD | Golden Dust |
OD | Orthodox Dust |
Terms Describing BLACK TEA GRADES (CTC Tea) | |
BROKEN | |
BP | Broken Pekoe |
BOP | Broken Orange Pekoe |
BPS | Broken Pekoe Souchong |
BP 1 | Broken Pekoe One |
FP | Flowery Pekoe |
FANNINGS | |
PF | Pekoe Fannings |
PF 1 | Pekoe Fannings One |
BOPF | Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings |
DUST | |
PD | Pekoe Dust |
D | Churamani Dust |
PD 1 | Pekoe Dust One |
D 1 | Dust One |
CD 1 | Churamani Dust One |
RD | Red Dust |
FD | Fine Dust |
SFD | Super Fine Dust |
RD 1 | Red Dust One |
GD | Golden Dust |
SRD | Super Red Dust |
Pekoe
The word "pekoe" comes from the Chinese word bai hwa or "white flower". In Taiwan, occasionally the Latin alphabet is used with a language system called POJ (an interesting bit of trivia to impress your friends with: this system was actually developed by the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church). Under the POJ system, the word is "peh-hoe", which has evolved over time into "pekoe". Today the term is used to classify a superior grade of black tea.
A pekoe tip is the down-like white or yellow hair on the tip of the youngest tea leaves. So the next time you hear someone refer to a tea as being "tippy", you'll know that they mean it has an abundance of tips!
OP: Orange Pekoe
No, it's not orange flavored tea. It does not refer to a particular flavor, color, or even quality. It simply designates a particular leaf size. During the manufacture of tea, the resulting product is leaves of varying sizes. OP denotes a particular size (typically larger leaves) that will not pass through a sieve of particular width.
Choppy
Tea is called choppy when a lot of tea contains leaves of widely varying sizes.
OP Sup Orange Pekoe Superior
This grade is only produced in Indonesia.
BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
Tea classified as BOP means that it is somewhat finer that Orange Pekoe (OP). Fannings Also known as tea dust, fannings are small particles of tea leaves, used almost exclusively in tea bag production.