How To Grade Tea

Grading tea is an art than science + it owes its special effect to its caffeine, tannins, amino acid, protein content (s) + trace element (s): fluoride, potassium, calcium, manganese, vitamins: niacin, vitamin B1 and B2 + it acts directly on the brain and central nervous system (s) + it increases concentration.

Look how similar the concept is to diamond grading (old + new terms) + colored stone grading: it's either the color (due color causing trace elements), saturation or tone (based on percentage of elements + other modifiers) + other factors (like clarity + size, shape, proportion, symmetry, finish) that creates a unique gradation.

- Whole Leaf

- Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP)

- Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP)
- FOP with golden tips

- Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP)
- FOP with lots of golden tips

- Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP)
- Exceptional quality FOP

- Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP)
- The very best FOP

- Orange Pekoe (OP)

- Pekoe (P)

- Flowery Pekoe (FP)

- Pekoe Souchong (PS)

- Souchong (S)

Experts may also add 1 to decribe top quality after leaf designation (s): like FTGFOP1, OP1, S1 and so on.

- Broken Leaf
- Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP), Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP), Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP), Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP), Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (GFBOP), Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (TGFBOP)

- Fannings
- Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF)

- Dust
- Broken Orange Pekoe Dust (BPOD), Pekoe Dust (PD), Red Dust (RD), Super Red Dust (SRD), Fine Dust (FD), Super Fine Dust (SFD), Golden Dust (GD)

The grades of tea are represented by initials or a series of initials. Here are the grades of leaf sizes from largest to smallest:

- Whole Leaf
- Souchon
- FOP: Flowery Orange Pekoe
- OP: Orange Pekoe

- Broken Leaf
- P: Pekoe
- BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe

- Fannings and Dust
- F: Fannings
- D: Dust

- Additional Modifiers
- T: Tippy
- G: Golden

Usually they start at the lowest grade PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP (higher quality). They may also add modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + even more modifiers such FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) + SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) to improve the overall quality.