Tea Grades

Why we only sell loose leaf tea

We focus on the large leaf grades (OP and above) for these give a more all-round and balanced cup. These grades do not apply to China.

• SFTGFOP – Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – the very best.
• FTGFOP – Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – exceptionally high quality.
• TGFOP – Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – contains a large proportion of tips.
• GFOP – Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe – contains tips, the golden coloured leaf buds.
• FOP – Flowery Orange Pekoe – contains the leaf bud and first two young leaves.
• OP – Orange Pekoe – contains whole end leaves.
• P – Pekoe – contains whole, less fine leaves.
• BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe – broken leaf grades.
• Fannings Small leaf grade. Used for teabags.
• Dust – The finest leaf particles. Used for cheap teabags.

Tea grades, especially from India and Sri Lanka are mainly determined by leaf size

Large leaf teas have a smaller surface area relative to weight. Therefore the easily soluble elements of the flavour such as tannins do not become too dominant in the liquor. This gives time for the more subtle and complex flavours to become infused. This does mean however that a good loose leaf tea takes longer to brew than teabags. Allow from three to five minutes, depending upon the type. Teabags require the smallest leaf grades to be used in their manufacture. Teabags therefore do not allow the full balance of flavours to be infused into the cup. Given too much time the tea they produce will be bitter, containing too much tannin.

See our insight into Indian teas and our Ceylon teas from Sri Lanka. Want to know more? See our blog posts on specific types of tea: What is black tea, what is oolong tea, what is yellow tea, what is white tea and what is English tea?