DARJEELING TEA GRADES
Darjeeling Tea is mostly produced with an orthodox method that keeps the leaves whole during the production. When
Darjeeling Tea is sold, it is classified by size and quality. Basically there are four types of teas or grades produced in Darjeeling.
WHOLE LEAF Darjeeling Tea
SFTGFOP: Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP) indicates that it contains many tips and are long and wiry in appearance. The tea liquor is lighter in color, but this depends on the Darjeeling tea season.
Other whole leaf grades are:
FTGFOP: Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP).
BROKEN LEAF
FTGBOP: Fine Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (FTGBOP) Darjeeling Tea leaves are smaller in size and are graded in decreasing order of quality.
Other broken Darjeeling Tea grades are:
TGBOP: Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe.
FBOP: Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe.
BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe.
FANNINGS
GFOF: Golden Flowery Orange Fannings (GFOF) Darjeeling Tea leaves are still smaller in size than the brokens and are graded in decreasing order of quality.
Other Darjeeling Tea fanning grades:
GOF: Golden Orange Fannings.
DUST
D: Dust
The above gradations relate only to the size of the leaf and not to quality differences. All grades are the product of the same green tea leaf. In addition to these nomenclatures, occasionally suffixes as China-(ch), Clonal-(cl), Special-(spl) (mentioned grade names are common with Margaret's Hope Tea Garden's production) etc. may be included, as per the practice of individual gardens. Sometimes Darjeeling Tea gardens add a numeral "1" after the grade name defining top grade. All of the above grades are generalized Darjeeling Tea grades or types which also greatly differs with different Darjeeling Tea season mainly, Darjeeling First Flush, Darjeeling Second Flush and Darjeeling Autumn Flush.
