Tea grades  

The value of the tea is also determined by the grade, i.e. the part of the leaf that is picked and destined to form the tea.

There are two main families of grades: OP for Orange Pekoe (Orange is taken from the Dutch royal family name Oranje Nassau and not the fruit, and Pekoe comes from Chinese meaning  "light down") indicating whole leaves, and BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) indicating broken leaves.

The more letters that come in front of these two grades, the more buds the tea has ("Golden Tips"), the younger and smaller the growth, and the higher the quality of the tea.

 

Whole leaf (FOP)
FOP
Flowery Orange Pekoe
Pekoe + two leaves (fine picking)

GFOP

 

  Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe

TGFOP

 

Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe

TGFOP 1

 

Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One

FTGFOP

 

Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe

FTGFOP 1

 

Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One

SFTGFOP

 

Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe

SFTGFOP 1

 

Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One

 

 

 


Broken leaf (OP)
BOP Broken Orange Pekoe
Even and regular presentation without bits of flat or poorly fermented leaves
Like the FOP, if there are a lot of buds present, it is graded in increasing order of quality as

 

 

 

BOP 1

 

Broken Orange Pekoe

FBOP

 

Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe

GBOP 

 

Golden Broken Orange Pekoe

GFBOP

 

Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe

TGBOP

 

Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe

BP

 

Broken Pekoe 2nd or 3rd leaf. The tea is coarser and darker than BOP. It is generally used for broken leaf blends

BPS

 

Broken Pekoe Souchong. Very coarse, low quality

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For 140 years Kusmi Tea has been offering the world the finest in high quality tea blends. Green tea Blends like Green Bouquet, Spearmint green tea or Detox, Black tea like Prince Vladimir and real estate tea such as Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylon. Kusmi Tea is also known for its red teas and its delicate herbal teas.