How is Black Tea

Graded?

Ref.
www.Buzzle.com
www.2basnob.com
 size of the particle or leaf.

1. The size of the leaf, in turn, frequently depends on how the

tea has been harvested and processed
– Orthodox method.
iii. When the Orthodox method is used, the top tier of leaves
and the bud are hand-plucked
– CTC
v. In this case, the tea leaves may be either plucked by hand or
harvested by machinery
 The top tea grade is referred to as Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. With
this particular tea, the top leaves and bud are hand-plucked. The tea’s name
is derived from the buds’ golden edge.
 Grading Tea

• After processing, the tea is graded by size. Grading tea is more of an art
than a science
• The size needs to be consistent among the various grades because
smaller, broken pieces of leaves brew faster than whole leaf.
• whole leaf is considered better quality than broken, and smaller whole
leaves generally have more flavor than larger ones.

 Whole Leaf
 Broken Leaf
 Fannings and Dust
 Additional Modifiers
 Whole Leaf

• S - Souchong (Usually the fourth leaf of the

shoot which means it comes from coarse
plucking and is therefore, lower quality)
• FOP – Flowery Orange Pekoe (It’s often
thought that Orange Pekoe is a type of tea,
but it’s really just a size. Flowery refers to its
shape resembling a crushed flower because it
is loosely rolled.)
• OP – Orange Pekoe (Generally regarded as
a good quality tea that is rolled up slightly
tighter than FOP)
 Broken Leaf

• P – Pekoe (A large broken leaf grade

that usually does not contain any
visible tips)
• BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe (Broken
into pieces that are typically square
shaped)
 Fannings and Dust

• F – Fannings (The size usually found in

tea bags. The name comes from an old
practice of using fans to separate the
smallest pieces from the larger)
• D – Dust (The finest of all grades, almost
powder-like)
 Additional Modifiers:

• T – Tippy (A modifier used in whole

and broken leaf grades to indicate
that the that there are buds present)
• G – Golden (Describing the coloring
of the tips or buds and is considered
favorable)
•
 conclution
• When grading whole leaf teas, they usually
start at the lowest grade, PS (Pekoe
Souchong) to FOP which is a higher quality.
Then, they will add the modifiers such as
GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) which
is even better.
• After that, even more modifiers are added
such as, FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery
Orange Pekoe) and even SFTGFOP (Special
Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe).
Whew, that’s a mouthful!
The grading system is typically used

Africa, India, or Sri Lanka

Some Chinese teas may also be
subjected to the grading system

the grading systems for green tea and

oolong tea vary according to the country
involved in Japan
green teas grown in Japan are graded according to geography, style,
and quality
Japanese grades tend to go by names such as extra choicest, finest
fine, common, and nubs.
In
China
green tea is graded in relation to the leaf’s age, style, and shape.
Chinese grades are identified by names such as Pinhead and Pea Leaf.
Meanwhile, green teas grown in India are known by leaf styles such as
Young Hyson, Soumee, and Fannings.
 How is tea graded?

http://groups.google.com/grou
p/rec.food.drink.tea
• The first thing to keep in mind is
that these are descriptions of the
dry, cured leaf _only_. They have no
necessary relation to the aroma,
color, or flavor of the end product. It
is possible to get a delicious cup
from ugly, broken leaves; it is
possible to get an awful cup from
well-handled, beautiful whole
leaves. But since you may have little
information to work with other than
the grade, let's look at the various
There are different grading schemes for black and green teas.
Here are the basic grades of black tea:

• Flowery Orange Pekoe (peck-oh), Orange

Pekoe
• Pekoe
• Souchong

• Broken Orange Pekoe

• Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings
• Broken Pekoe
• Fannings
• Dust
 description
• 'Pekoe' (pronounced 'PECK-oh') is
derived from a Chinese word meaning 'white'; this referred
to the white hair on the leaf bud. Early Western merchants
used the word to mean that the leaves so graded were
exclusively plucked from the tip of the branch: the leaf bud
and the two leaves below the bud. Its use in India and Sri
Lanka broadened to mean whole leaves of a uniform size,
and this is what it generally means now. This may include
leaves picked from lower on the branch.
 description
• 'Flowery Orange Pekoe' is often
abbreviated 'FOP'. The term 'flowery' apparently
refers to the leaf bud, since actual tea flowers are
not used in the preparation of the drink.
 description
• Orange' is variously described as a reference to the Dutch
House of Orange or as a reference to an old Chinese practice of
including orange blossoms as a flavoring agent. Whichever story is
true, Orange Pekoe leaves are higher quality than Pekoe leaves.
• 'Souchong' means large leaves, generally not from the tip of
the branch.
 High-quality Darjeelings are often graded according to a complex (one is
tempted to say baroque) system including terms such as TGFOP and FTGFOP.
One r.f.d.t reader was under the impression that these abbreviations stood for
"Too Good For Ordinary People" and "Far Too Good For Ordinary People." Not a
bad guess, in my opinion. Here's what they actually stand for:

• TGFOP: Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. 'Tippy',

'Golden', and 'Flowery' are all references to the leaf bud at the tip of the
branch. (Buds have a lighter color than fully formed leaves, hence
'golden'.)
• FTGFOP: Fancy [or Fine] Tippy Golden Flowery
Orange Pekoe. 'Fancy' is a term also used in the grading of
oolongs.
• SFTGFOP: Super-Fine [Fancy] Tippy Golden
Flowery Orange Pekoe.
 When dealing with Darjeelings
also see the following terms:
• Estate: names the plantation where the leaves
were grown.

• Vintage: means that the leaves are the product of one

harvest, and are not blended with any others.

• First Flush: the leaves were plucked in the first

growth of the season. It usually produces a very light,
delicate drink.
• Second Flush: second-growth harvest. More robust
and complex than first flush.
How tea testers grade tea
 www.indiatea.org/teatesting/teatestin
g.html
• The tea taster's is a specialised function demanding
talent cultivated during years of training and experience.
The sense of taste is only one of the many faculties a
taster must cultivate. Of the five human senses of smell,
sight and touch areas essential in tasting tea as is the
sense of taste. The term 'tea tasting' is therefore a part-
nomer for what is a comprehensive examination of tea.
Close Scrutiny
Before a taster Begins his work, sample of tea are
infused or brewed. Each sample is infused in boiling
water for six minutes. The liquor or liquid is then
separated from the infused leaf. White porcelain cups
and pots are use to ensure an authentic view of liquor
colour.
When ready for tasting, the taster first examine two or
three ounces of dry leaf tea. Good black tea should have
a uniform black colour with a bloom or sheen. it should
contain golden tips( the more the better) which come
from the 'buds' and not from two leafs. Brown stalk and
fibre are unwelcome as they represent the hard stem
between leaves. The taster checks the size and
evenness of the leaves. The style of the tea is just as
important; a well twisted heavy leaf is desirable while a
flaky style is not. His sense of touch helps him verify
whether the tea is crisp and well-dried. A spongy feel
indicates that the tea contains a high percentage of
moisture and therefore will not 'Keep' well deteriorate
www.indiatea.org/teatesting/teatesting
.html
• Decisive factor
Then tea taster's eye turn to the infused leaf to see its colour, its
uniformity and brightness. The infused leaf gives a cross-section
view of the tea and therefore a look of sniff are helpful.

• Until now the taster has not used his palate which is of course, the
most decisive factor in the examination of tea, but before he
tastes, he carefully looks at the colour of liquor to see how bright
and golden it is.He then proceeds to taste by sipping about a
spoonful of the liquor and rolling it in his mouth for a few second
before spitting it out. In the course of the few second that the
liquor in his mouth, the taster registers how strong and brisk it is.
Strength is thickness while briskness (life or pungency which
spring water has but water from a lake does not) is a property of a
good tea which will 'keep' well.
In these same few seconds, the taster also judges the final
aspects of the liquor. Character is the distinctive taste which
depends upon the area in which tea is grown.
• Quality is aroma which is found in abundance only during certain
seasons of the year when leaf growth is slow. flavor or bouquet is
the ultimate in tea liquor and, being rare, is much sought after. a
Darjeeling tea with an outstanding flavor can be worth Rs. 1600
per Kg or More.
www.indiatea.org/teatesting/teatesting
.html
• Palate Memory
Trained sensitive taste buds and a keen sense of smell
are essential to detect so much in such a short time,
but they are not all.An encyclopedic palate memory is
must for a successful tea taster. No tea can be tasted
and valued in abstract. The taster must be able to
compare it with a number of teas he have tasted over
years and which are no longer available. Without
experience and a long association with a wide range
of teas, a taster can not do justice to his work.
The taster is often called upon to assist the producer
in improving quality. He must be intimately familiar
with the various process of tea manufacture.
Otherwise he cannot relate a shortcoming in the tea
with a particular fault in manufacture.