![Black tea grading](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Black_tea_grading.jpg)
In the
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the
tea leaves
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and norther ...
themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as "orange pekoe", and the lowest as "
fannings
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as "orange pekoe", and the lowe ...
" or "dust". Pekoe tea grades are classified into various qualities, each determined by how many of the adjacent young leaves (two, one, or none) were picked along with the leaf buds. Top-quality pekoe grades consist of only the leaf buds, which are picked using the balls of the fingertips. Fingernails and mechanical tools are not used, to avoid bruising. Certain grades of leaf are better suited to certain varieties of tea. For example, most white tea is processed from the buds or shoots of the tea plant.
When crushed to make bagged teas, the tea is referred to as "broken", as in "broken orange pekoe" ("BOP"). These lower grades include fannings and dust, which are tiny remnants created in the sorting and crushing processes.
Orange pekoe is referred to as "OP". The grading scheme also contains categories higher than OP, which are determined primarily by leaf wholeness and size.
Broken, fannings and dust orthodox teas have slightly different grades.
CTC teas, which consist of leaves mechanically rendered to uniform fannings, have yet another grading system.
General classifications
Grading by size
Although grading systems vary, the size of the leaf or broken pieces is an essential quality. Size is an important factor how tea is prepared as a beverage. In general, larger leaves or pieces require a longer steeping time. Also, if measured by volume, the larger sizes need more tea to produce the same strength beverage.
Grading by appearance
Some teas are graded by their appearance. Whole leaves are easier to grade by appearance than broken pieces.
Orange pekoe
![Earl Grey FBOP-Wilson Ceylon Teas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Earl_Grey_FBOP-Wilson_Ceylon_Teas.jpg)
Orange pekoe (), also spelled pecco, or OP is a term used in the Western tea trade to describe a particular genre of
black tea
Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...
s (orange pekoe grading).
Despite a purported Chinese origin, these grading terms are typically used for teas from Sri Lanka, India and countries other than China; they are not generally known within Chinese-speaking countries. The grading system is based upon the size of processed and dried black tea leaves.
The tea industry uses the term orange pekoe to describe a basic, medium-grade black tea consisting of many whole tea leaves of a specific size;
[ however, it is popular in some regions (such as North America) to use the term as a description of any generic black tea (though it is often described to the consumer as a specific variety of black tea).] Within this system, the teas that receive the highest grades are obtained from new flushes (pickings). This includes the terminal leaf bud along with a few of the youngest leaves. Grading is based on the "size" of the individual leaves and flushes, which is determined by their ability to fall through the screens of special mesh
A mesh is a barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible or ductile materials. A mesh is similar to a web or a net in that it has many attached or woven strands.
Types
* A plastic mesh may be extruded, oriented, ex ...
es ranging from 8–30 mesh. This also determines the "wholeness", or level of breakage, of each leaf, which is also part of the grading system. Although these are not the only factors used to determine quality, the size and wholeness of the leaves will have the greatest influence on the taste, clarity, and brewing time of the tea.
When used outside the context of black-tea grading, the term "pekoe" (or, occasionally, orange pekoe) describes the unopened terminal leaf bud (tips) in tea flushes. As such, the phrases "a bud and a leaf" or "a bud and two leaves" are used to describe the "leafiness" of a flush; they are also used interchangeably with pekoe and a leaf or pekoe and two leaves.
Etymology
The origin of the word "pekoe" is uncertain. One explanation is that it is derived from the transliterated mispronunciation of the Amoy
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...
(Xiamen) dialect word for a Chinese tea known as "white down/hair" ( 白毫; ). This is how "pekoe" is listed by Rev. Robert Morrison (1782–1834) in his Chinese dictionary (1819) as one of the seven sorts of black tea "commonly known by Europeans". This refers to the down-like white "hairs" on the leaf and also to the youngest leaf buds. Another hypothesis is that the term derives from the Chinese ''báihuā'' "white flower" (), and refers to the bud content of pekoe tea.
Sir Thomas Lipton
Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet (10 May 18482 October 1931) was a Scotsman of Ulster-Scots parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup m ...
, the 19th-century British tea magnate, is widely credited with popularizing, if not inventing, the term "orange pekoe", which seems to have no Chinese precedent, for Western markets. The "orange" in orange pekoe is sometimes mistaken to mean the tea has been flavoured with orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
, orange oils, or is otherwise associated with oranges. However, the word "orange" is unrelated to the tea's flavor. There are two explanations for its meaning, though neither is definitive:
# The Dutch House of Orange-Nassau
The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the politics and government of the Netherlands ...
, now the royal family, was already the most respected aristocratic family in the days of the Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
and came to control the ''de facto'' head of state position (Stadtholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...
) of Holland and Zealand. The Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
played a central role in bringing tea to Europe and may have marketed the tea as "orange" to suggest association with the House of Orange.
# Colour: the copper colour of a high-quality, oxidized leaf before drying, or the final bright orange colour of the dried pekoes in the finished tea may be related to the name. These usually consist of one leaf bud and two leaves covered in fine, downy hair. The orange colour appears when the tea is fully oxidized.
Fannings
Fannings are small pieces of tea that are left over after higher grades of teas are gathered to be sold. Traditionally these were treated as the rejects of the manufacturing process in making high-quality leaf tea like the orange pekoe. Fannings with extremely small particles are sometimes called dusts.["Good liquoring CTCs see demand at Kolkata tea sale", ''Sify'', Jul. 21, 2008.](_blank)
/ref> Fannings and dusts are considered the lowest grades of tea, separated from broken-leaf teas which have larger pieces of the leaves. However, the fannings of expensive teas can still be more expensive and more flavourful than whole leaves of cheaper teas.
This traditionally low-quality tea has, however, experienced a huge demand in the developing world in the last century as the practice of tea drinking became popular. Tea stall
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
s in India and the South Asian sub-continent and Africa prefer dust tea because it is cheap and also produces a very strong brew; consequently, more cups are obtained per measure of tea dust.
Because of the small size of the particles, a tea infuser
A tea infuser is a device in which loose, dried tea leaves are placed for steeping or brewing, in a mug or a teapot full of hot water; it is often called a teaball or tea maker, and sometimes a tea egg. The tea infuser gained popularity in the f ...
is typically used to brew fannings. Fannings are also typically used in most tea bags
A tea bag, or the compound teabag, is a small, porous, sealed bag or packet, typically containing tea leaves or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steep and make an infusion. Originally used only for tea (''Camellia sin ...
, although some companies sell tea bags containing whole-leaf tea.
Some exporters focus primarily on broken-leaf teas, fannings, and dusts.
Grades
Choppy contains many leaves of various sizes. Fannings are small particles of tea leaves used almost exclusively in tea bags. Flowery consists of large leaves, typically plucked in the second or third flush with an abundance of tips. Golden flowery includes very young tips or buds (usually golden in colour) that were picked early in the season. Tippy includes an abundance of tips.The Tea House Times, GRADING TERMINOLOGY FOR TEA LEAVES
/ref>
Whole-leaf grades
Broken leaf grades
Fannings grades
Dust grades
Other terms
* Musc. – Muscatel
* Cl. – Clonal
* Ch. – China varietal
* Qu. – Queen jat
* FBOPF Ex. Spl. – Finest Broken Orange Pekoe Flowery (Extra Special)
* FP – Flowery Pekoe
* PS – Pekoe Souchong
* S – Souchong
* BOF – Broken Orange Fannings
* BPF – Broken Pekoe Fannings
* RD – Pekoe Dust / Red Dust
* FD – Fine Dust
* GD – Golden Dust
* SRD – Super Red Dust
* SFD – Super Fine Dust
* BMF – Broken Mixed Fannings
See also
* Food grading
Food grading involves the inspection, assessment and sorting of various foods regarding quality, freshness, legal conformity and market value.Saravacos, George D.; Maroulis, Zacharias B. (2011''Food Process Engineering Operations'' CRC Press. p ...
* ISO 3103
ISO 3103 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (commonly referred to as ISO), specifying a standardized method for brewing tea, possibly sampled by the standardized methods described in ISO 1839. It was orig ...
, a standardized method of tea brewing used to compare tea leaf flavor and aroma characteristics
* Maofeng
Huangshan Maofeng tea (; pronounced ) is a green tea produced in south eastern interior Anhui province of China. The tea is one of the most famous teas in China and can almost always be found on the China Famous Tea list. The tea is grown near Hu ...
, an equivalent tea term in China
* Tea blending and additives
Tea blending is the act of blending different teas together to produce a final product that differs in flavor from the original tea used. This occurs chiefly with black tea, which is blended to make most tea bags, but it can also occur with such ...
Notes
References
General
*
{{Teas
Black tea