5. Tea Grades
1. What is Tea?
2.The Tea plant
3. History of Tea
4. Tea sorts and their Production
6. Tea regions
7. How to brew a perfect cup of Tea
8. Tea and Health
Tea is sorted
into various grades. These grades are not standardised worldwide and may
vary according to origin. A tea's grade does not necessarily indicate
flavour or quality. They are rather determined by many different factors
including: the country of origin, the variety of the tea (usually named
after the district where it is grown), the garden or estate, the elevation,
the particular flush (picking) and the manufacturing after harvesting.
Most black teas are graded and sold according to leaf or particle size.
The harvesting and manufacturing of tea has a great impact on the finished
size of the leaf, thus the tea grade.
There are two main methods of producing black tea.
The traditional Orthodox method requires hand plucking of the top two
leaves and the bud at harvesting and rolling during the leaf disruption
(beginning of fermentation) stage of manufacturing. The Orthodox method
may yield all of the possible leaf sizes and grades.
The CTC (crush, tear, curl) method of producing black tea has been gaining
in popularity because of its efficiency and convenience. CTC processed
teas may be either hand plucked or harvested by machinery. When machine
harvested, the CTC process gathers the traditional top two leaves and
bud as well as other leaves on the tea bush. The leaves are then processed
through the Cut, Tear, Curl machine during the leaf disruption stage of
manufacturing. CTC processed teas have a palletised appearance and are
always broken sizes.
The leaf grades are:
Orange Pekoe (OP) pronounced "Peck-oh", is a whole leaf tea showing no tip and when sifted after firing will not pass through a certain designated sieve size. Orange Pekoe has nothing to do with oranges or orange flavour, which is a common misunderstanding (comes from the name of the Dutch royal family: Oranje). These leaves are usually of uniform size and rolled lengthways.
Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP) is the top grade. During harvesting the top two leaves and bud are plucked by hand. The bud is actually the immature leaf tip which is not yet fully opened. When harvested during the slow growth periods, these young buds have a golden tip, hence the grade 'Flowery'. When these tips are in abundance the terms 'Tippy and Golden' are also attached. Occasionally the number "1" or "2" may be placed at the end of the letters to designate better grades among similar teas. Similarly the letter "F" may appear before the TGFOP to designate a "finer" grade and the letters "SF" designates a grade of "super fine".
Thus a tea graded as "SFTGFOP1" is a Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - grade 1 (see below).
Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP) is the next grade below Orange Pekoe which designates a broken leaf. Tippy, golden, and flowery or a combination of these terms may also be applied to this size of leaf. Thus a grade of "TGBOP" is a Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe tea.
Fanning (F) is even smaller than BOP. This is a broken leaf about the size of a pin head.
Dust (D) is the lowest grade of tea available if produced by CTC method of manufacturing and Dust if produced by the Orthodox Method. This size is literally the smallest broken pieces left after siftings, sometimes called the "sweepings".
These grading
terms are usually applied to black teas from India, Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra,
Africa, a few Chinese teas and to some other black teas.
It is important to keep in mind with this grading system that whole leaf
size teas command higher prices and have greater visual appeal. However
the broken sizes can possess excellent flavour and aroma. Plus the smaller
size tea leaves steep quicker releasing flavour faster.
The grading of green and oolong teas is a little more subtle and less
structured than that of black teas. Unlike black teas the grading of green
tea has a definite relationship with the quality and flavour of the tea.
Green and oolong teas are priced according to the variety of the tea,
the province and estate where it is grown and the flush or picking. China
scented green teas are Pouchongs and scented with either jasmine, gardenia
or yulan blossoms.
Jasmine tea is graded according to the quality of the tea and the effectiveness
of the scenting.
There are many less common teas with their own set of complicated grading
systems such as Ceylon greens, Java greens and scented Oolongs. Many of
the grades have subdivisions which can make them even more complicated.