Tea Grades
All teas are categorized in 4 main categories as Whole Leaf, Broken Leaf, Fanning’s and Dust. It should be mentioned that tea grades are designated by the producers and sometimes can vary from one to another. So before buying tea, asking for samples is a way of making sure you are buying the grade you are expecting.
Black Tea Grades
The first grade of Black Tea is "OP" or "Orange Pekoe". The word of "Pekoe" is taken from the Chinese word for white hair which refers to the silvery down on new leaves and buds. While the word of "Orange" is taken from "Netherlands House of Orange" a powerful entity in the early days of tea trading or it is because the Chinese sometimes used to flavor these leaves with Orange blossoms. Today "Orange Pekoe" describes leaves, specifically the finest leaves plucked from tips of the plant’s young shoots. These leaves are grading as bellows:
Black Orthodox Whole leaf tea
Black Orthodox whole leaf tea is not broken or torn during its production, however, the size of the leaves depends on plucking and processing.
FP: Flowery Pekoe
FP is high quality pekoe. They are the next leaves down from OP; shorter and coarser. FP is produced in Ceylon, South India and some parts of Kenya.
PS: Pekoe Souchong
PS is like FP except leaves are further broken down.
FTGFOP: Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
FTGFOP is the highest quality grade of black tea. It is primarily used to grade Indian black teas consisting of exceptional quality OP with lots of tips.
FTGFOP1: Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One
FTGFOP1 is the highest quality leaves in FTGFOP.
STGFOP: Special Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
STGFOP is the highest quality leaves in FTGFOP.
SFTGFOP: Special Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
SFTGFOP is primarily used to grade Darjeeling teas with a large proportion of leaves having golden tips on new leaf buds which is a guarantee of quality.
TGFOP: Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
TGFOP has the highest proportion of tip in tea grades. In TGFOP Golden refers to the buds, which have a lighter color than other leaves. TGFOP is the main grade in Darjeeling and Assam tea.
TGFOP1: Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1
TGFOP1 is the highest quality leaves in TGFOP.
GFOP: Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
GFOP is FOP with some amount of golden tips. GFOP is top grade in Milima and Marinyn, but it is uncommon in Assam and Darjeeling regions.
FOP: Flowery Orange Pekoe
FOP is high quality tea with long leaf and few tips. FOP is the first grade in China while it is the second grade in Assam, Dooars and Bangladesh teas.
FOP1: Flowery Orange Pekoe One
FOP1 is the highest quality leaves in FOP.
OP: Orange Pekoe
OP is main whole leaf grade consisting of long pointed leaves that are harvested when the terminal buds open into leaf. OP Rarely contains "tips".
OP1: Orange Pekoe One
OP1 is finer than OP; it is consisting of long wiry leaf with light liquor.
OPA: Orange Pekoe A
OPA is Bolder than OP; it is consisting of long leaf tea which ranges from tightly wound to almost open.
OPS: Orange Pekoe Superior
OPS is same as OP. It is Primarily from Indonesia.
Black Orthodox Broken leaf tea
Black Orthodox broken leaf tea is a tea that has been torn or broken but is still in large enough pieces to be recognizable as pieces of leaf.
BOP1: Broken Orange Pekoe one
GFBOP: Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
GFBOP1: Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe One
GFBOP1 is the highest quality leaves in GFBOP.
TGFBOP1: Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe One
TGFBOP1 is high quality leaves with a high proportion of tips. TGFBOP1 is the finest broken First Grade Leaves in Darjeeling and some parts of Assam regions.
BPS: Broken Pekoe Souchong
BPS is broken pekoe in the Assam and Darjeeling regions.
GBOP: Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
GBOP is the second grade tea with rough leaves and few tips.
TGBOP: Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
FBOP: Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
FBOP is coarser and broken with some tips. FBOP is from Assam, Ceylon, Indonesia, China, and Bangladesh. In South America, FBOP is coarser, black broken.
BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
BOP is the main grade of broken leaf. BOP is common in Assam, Ceylon, South India, Java and China.
FBOPF: Finest Broken Orange Pekoe Flowery
FBOPF is the finest broken orange pekoe with a higher proportion of tips. It is mainly from Ceylon's low areas.
Black Orthodox Fanning’s
Black Orthodox Fannings are finely broken pieces of tea leaf that still have a coarse texture.. Fannings are smallest pieces of tea that are left over as the higher grades of teas are gathered to be sold. Fannings are also the rejects from the manufacturing process of making a higher quality of tea. They are highly popular in India and other parts of southern Asia due to its strong brew as they are used in tea bags. In order to brew fannings, infuser is used due to its smaller size of leaves.
GOF: Golden Orange Fanning’s
FOF: Flowery Orange Fanning’s
FOF is common in Assam, Dooars and Bangladesh. In FOF some leaf sizes come close to the smaller broken grades.
GFOF: Golden Flowery Orange Fanning’s
GFOF is the finest grade in Darjeeling for tea bag production.
TGFOF: Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Fanning’s
BOPF: Broken Orange Pekoe Fanning’s
The leaf size which is smaller than BOP is graded as fanning. BOPF is primarily used in tea bags since it is small and steeps very quickly. BOPF is the main grade in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South India, Kenya, Mozambique, Bangladesh and China. BOPF is black leaf tea with few added ingredients with uniform particle size and no tips.
Black Orthodox Dust
Black Orthodox Dust is a fine powder, much finer than fannings. Dust is made of tea particles left over from producing higher grades of tea.
OPD: Orthodox Pekoe Dust
OCD: Orthodox Churamani Dust
BOPD: Broken Orange Pekoe Dust
BOPFD: Broken Orange Pekoe Fine Dust
FD: Fine Dust
D-A: Dust A
Spl. Dust: Special Dust
G. Dust: Golden Dust
OD: Orthodox Dust
Black CTC Broken leaf tea
PEK: Pekoe
BP: Broken Pekoe
BP is the most common broken pekoe grade in Indonesia, Ceylon, Assam and South India.
BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
BOP is the main broken leaf grade. BOP is common in Assam, Ceylon, South India, Java and China.
BPS: Broken Pekoe Souchong
BPS is broken pekoe in the Assam and Darjeeling regions.
BP1: Broken Pekoe One
FP: Flowery Pekoe
FP is high quality pekoe with the next leaves down from OP. They are shorter, coarser leaves. FP is usually coarser with a fleshier, broken leaf. FP is produced in Ceylon and South India as well as in some parts of Kenya.
BT: Broken Tea
BT is a black, open, fleshy leaf that is very bulky. It is common in Sumatra, Ceylon and some parts of South India.
Black CTC Fanning’s 
OF: Orange Fanning’s
OF is from north India and some parts of Africa and South America.
PF: Pekoe Fanning’s
PF1: Pekoe Fanning’s One
BOPF: Broken Orange Pekoe Fanning’s
The leaf size which is smaller than BOP is graded as fanning. BOPF grade is common used in tea bags since it is small and steeps very quickly.
Black CTC Dust
PD: Pekoe Dust
D: Dust
CD: Churamani Dust
PD1: Pekoe Dust One
is mainly produced in India.
D1: Dust One
D1 is from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China, Africa, South America, South India and Bangladesh.
CD1: Churamani Dust One
RD: Red Dust
FD: Fine Dust
SFD: Super Fine Dust
RD1: Red Dust One
G D: Golden Dust
SRD: Super Red Dust
Green Tea Grades
Green tea is a kind of tea made from Camellia sinensis leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process used to make black teas and oolong teas. Green tea originated in China, but its production and manufacture has spread to many other countries in Asia.
Several varieties of green tea exist, based on the variety of Camellia sinensiss used, growing conditions, horticultural methods, production processing and time of harvest.
Green Whole leaf Tea
YH: Young Hyson
FYH: Fine Young Hyson
Green Broken leaf Tea
GP: Gun Powder
H: Hyson
FH: Fine Hyson
Green Fanning’s
SOUMEE: Soumee
Green Dust
DUST: Dust
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