Tea Grades – Ajus Tea Factory

Grades of Tea

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 are referred to as “orange pekoe”, and the lowest as “fannings” 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.

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.

CTC (crush-tear-curl) tea is tea that has been produced by a modern, mechanical process that tears the leaf in order to induce oxidation, rather than manually rolling it to bruise the leaf, as in the production of orthodox tea. Because the CTC process breaks the leaf, there is no whole-leaf CTC tea, and thus CTC tea is divided into broken-leaf, fannings, and dust. CTC is widely regarded as inferior, and the primary benefit is its lower cost of production, due to automation, although like other teas, CTC tea still varies widely in quality.

It is less common for tea drinkers to see CTC tea graded in tea for sale in stores or online. CTC tea grades include, for broken leaf tea, BP, BOP, BPS, BP1, and FP, and for fannings, OF, PF, and BOPF. There are a myriad of grades for CTC dust.

CTC Broken Leaf

1. FP – Flowery Pekoe

2. BPS – Broken Pekoe Souchong

3. PEKOE – Pekoe
4. BOPL – Broken Orange Pekoe Large
5. BOP
6. BOPsm
7. BP – Broken Pekoe
8. BPsm – Broken Pekoe Small

CTC Fanning

1. OF – Orange Fannings
2. PF – Pekoe Fannings
3. BOPF – Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings

CTC Dust

1. PD – Pekoe Dust
2. D – Dust
3. CD – Churamani Dust
5. GD – Golden Pekoe
6. SRD – Super Red Dust
7. FD – Fine Dust
8. SFD – Super Fine Dust

Grades	Description of Grade	Colour & Liquor	Usage
BOP L	Broken Orange Pekoe Large	Good aroma and Colour but weak liquor	Not very popular
BOPS	Broken Pekoe Souchong	Better taste, aroma and Colour	Not very popular
BOP	Broken Orange Pekoe	Has better Colour, liquor and taste as compared to BOP S and L	Popular with households
BOP SM	Broken Orange Pekoe Small	Has good liquor, Colour and aroma	Popular with households
BP	Broken Pekoe	It usually has better Colour, taste and sufficient aroma as compared to other grades	Popular with high-end hotels and households
BP SM	Broken Pekoe Small	Has good liquor, Colour and aroma	Popular with households and hotels
OF	Orange Fannings	Gives immediate Colour and has an aroma	Popular with commercial brands
PD	Pekoe Dust	Gives Colour and strong liquor	Usually bought by tea stalls and smaller restaurants as it has good Colour and strong liquor
Dust	Dust	Gives Colour and strong liquor	Usually bought by tea stalls and used in tea bags
CD	Churamani Dust	Gives Colour and slight liquor	Tea Stalls and Teabags
GD	Golden Pekoe	Gives Colour and slight liquor	Tea Stalls and Teabags
SRD	Super Red Dust	Gives Colour and slight liquor	Tea Stalls and Teabags
FD	Fine Dust	Gives Colour and slight liquor	Tea Stalls and Teabags
SFD	Super Fine Dust	Gives Colour and slight liquor	Tea Stalls and Teabags