When it's spring in the Himalayas...
When the sun-spun rain falls gently on the mountains...
When magical mists like divine dragons rise from forests...
That is when the mystique of Darjeeling Tea is created. |
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TEA GRADING OF DARJEELINGS
Tea in Darjeeling is mostly produced with an orthodox method that keeps the leaves whole during the production. When the tea is sold it is classified by size and quality. Basically there are four types of grades produced in Darjeeling.
WHOLE LEAF
SFTGFOP: Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP) indicates that it contains many tips and are long and wiry in appearance. The liquors are lighter in color.
Other whole leaf grades are:
FTGFOP: Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP).
BROKEN LEAF
FTGBOP: Fine Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (FTGBOP) leaves are smaller in size and are graded in decreasing order of quality.
Other broken grades are:
TGBOP: Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe.
FBOP: Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe.
BOP: Broken Orange Pekoe.
FANNINGS
GFOF: Golden Flowery Orange Fannings (GFOF) are still smaller in size than the brokens and are graded in decreasing order of quality.
Other 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 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 gardens add a numeral "1" after the grade name defining top grade.
