Leaf grades are more a reflection of technical terms referring to production.
- Orange Pekoe (OP):
- Leaves roll lengthwise, eight to fifteen millimeters, showing no tip.
- Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP):
- Certain leaves have golden tips.
- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP):
- All tips are golden.
- Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP):
- Leaves that have been broken (deliberately or not), yield high-quality Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP), or Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP). The crusted small pieces are called “Dust” or “Sweepings” and are less than one millimeter in size. Pekoe “Fannings” describe tea processed by a CTC method specifically for better quality tea bags.
Leaf Teas
- FTGFOP1
- Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1 (1 denotes the best selection of this grade)
- TGFOP
- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
- FOP
- Flowery Orange Pekoe: Leaves roll lengthwise, five to eight millimeters.
- P
- Pekoe
Broken Teas
- BP
- Broken Pekoe
- TGBOP
- Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
- FBOP
- Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
- BOP
- Broken Orange Pekoe
Finest Brokens
A mixture of different broken grades:
TGBOP, FBOP, BOP
GF Golden Fannings
(Fannings = smallest leaf grade)
- BOPF
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
- Dust
- The finest grade of tea. ‘Dust’ is a misleading term because it is often wrongly believed to be of poor quality.
