All Teas produced are graded according to size of leaf and appearance.
LARGE LEAF TEAS
FOP - Flowery Orange Pekoe - High Quality Teas usually from the second and third flush crops. For example Assam FOP GFOP - Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - Refers to Teas picked earlier in the season where the young tips have a golden colour. TGFOP - Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - These Teas have a high content of golden tips and is refered to as "Tippy" FTGFOP - Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - FTG represents the teas with the highest Tippy content. SFTGFOP - Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe - These teas have the finer lighter coloured liquors. SFTGFOP-1 - This mark is given to the very finest grade.
Other common grades
OP - Orange Pekoe - Leaf size is quite large and of quality can give the appearance of and FOP but tend to be plucked later in the year. From CEYLON we have some superior orange pekoe tea BOP - Broken Orange Pekoe - A small size broken leaf often used in Blending. BOP1 - Broken Orange Pekoe One GFBOP - Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe BPS - Broken Pekoe Souchong GBOP - Golden Broken Orange Pekoe FBOP - Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
Teas used for packing tea bags are referred to as FANNINGS. There is also a market in tea dust but really that is only used as fillers by some of the big tea brands !
As a matter of interest the Chinese do not adhere to the above terminology see ....CHINA TEA
Buy Loose Leaf Tea Online
Buy Loose Tea Online ! We offer many types of tea, from large loose leaf teas to pekoe fannings grades.