Grades
When Darjeeling teas are sold, they are graded by size and quality. The grades fall into four basic groups: whole leaf, broken leaf, fannings, and dust.
Whole leaf
- SFTGFOP: Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe indicates it contains many tips and is long and wiry in appearance. The liquors are lighter in color.
- FTGFOP: Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
- TGFOP: Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
Broken leaf consists of small tea leaves or pieces of large leaves.
- FTGBOP: Fine Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
- TGBOP: Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
- FBOP: Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
- BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe
Fannings consists of even smaller leaf sizes than the brokens.
- GFOF: Golden Flowery Orange Fannings
- GOF: Golden Orange Fannings
Dust, the lowest grade, consists of small pieces of tea leaves and tea dust.
- D: Dust
Read more about this topic: Darjeeling Tea
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