Tea has been a much-loved beverage for thousands of years by cultures all over the world. Each culture brought their own brewing and serving methods to the tea tradition, often accompanied by ritual or ceremony. We’re pleased that tea has survived the test of time, and even in today remains the worlds' most widely consumed beverage.

While there are many varieties and flavors of tea available, amazingly, they all derive from one tea plant—the Camellia Sinensis, which is an evergreen shrub. While all parts of the tea plant are used to make mass-produced and low quality teas, we use only the uppermost leaves and buds in our fine teas, as these are the youngest and tenderest.
When new leaves sprout, it’s called a flush, and within one growing season a plant may flush as many as two or three times. Darjeeling teas are known to be among the worlds most famous and enjoyed flushes.

A tea plant’s growth may be affected by many factors, including rain, temperature, frosts and altitude, which combine to affect the character and appearance of the leaves. Perhaps the largest influence in the development of exquisite teas is the soil and growing region, which significantly affects a tea’s flavor and fragrance. These influences, along with the manufacturing process, work together to produce all the tea varieties we know and love.

The finest teas, like the ones you’ll find at Plain-T, are harvested by hand. Cheaper teas are harvested by a vacuum-like machine, which sucks the leaves off and does not differentiate between the tender high-quality tips that we use, and the courser lower leaves.

Teas are processed either by the orthodox method, which is mainly by hand, or by the crush, tear and curl method, also called CTC. During CTC, leaves are compressed to squeeze out the excessive moisture, and then they’re torn and curled into little balls that look just like coffee crystals. CTC is used for lower quality leaves, and does serve a purpose when you’re talking about being able to process large volumes quickly. And, CTC helps bring out a strong, robust flavor from lesser quality leaves.
Tealeaves are set out in the shade until they become soft enough to roll without breaking. Rolling itself is normally done by machine, which enhances oxidation. Black teas are oxidized for a longer time period, making it more pungent. Oolong is oxidized for shorter periods, green teas slightly and white teas, not at all. Tealeaves are then fired to stop the oxidation, and to dehydrate them for storage.

When you look at a tea grade, it tells you about the dry, cured leaf only, and says nothing about the tea’s aroma, color or flavor.
Tea grading as a whole is not standardized throughout the industry, but a brief primer will help you decipher some of the acronyms and nomenclature you’ll discover while on your tea journey.

Pekoe, pronounced PECK-oh, comes from a Chinese word that means “white,” and refers to the fine white hairs on the tealeaf bud. In general, teas graded Pekoe means whole leaves of the same size, which includes lower leaves as well.

It is not clear what Orange means: it’s either a left-over reference to the Dutch House of Orange, or a reference to the old Chinese tradition of flavoring teas with orange blossoms. In any case, if you see Orange attributed to tealeaves, it means they’re a better quality than Pekoe alone.

In the U.S., you’ll find lots of bagged tea labeled “Orange Pekoe,” and people mistakenly think it’s a special type of tea. Instead, it’s a grade which size and condition of the leaves rather than the tea’s quality. Most tea that you find labeled “Orange Pekoe” is blended black tea from India or Sri Lanka.

If you’d like to learn more about tea qualities, please visit our Tea Tasting page, which gives you a primer on deciphering quality and taste.
Flowery, Tippy and Golden all refer to the leaf bud at the top of the branch itself, as tea flowers are not used to make tea. Flowery means the bud itself rather than just tealeaves. Golden means the tea contains very young tips and buds plucked early in the season, and if the tea has a large portion of these golden buds, it’s called Tippy. You’ll usually see these grades when looking at high-quality Darjeelings.

We further explain below each denomination for the leaves:

Pekoe (P)
Shorter, less fine leaves than (OP).

Orange Pekoe (OP)
Long, pointed leaves which are harvested after the buds blossom into leaves. It rarely contains “tips”.

Flowery Pekoe (FP)
Leaves which are rolled into balls.

Flowery Orange Pekoe (FOP)
The end bud and first leaf of each shoot. FOP has fine, soft young leaves rolled with the right proportion of tip, the fragile end pieces of the buds that guarantee quality.

Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (GFOP)
A step up from FOP, with “Golden Tips”, which are the very ends of the golden yellow buds.

Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (TGFOP)
GFOP with a large proportion of golden tips.

Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP)
Exceptionally high quality FOP.

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

Pekoe Souchong (PS)
Shorter, coarser leaves than P.

Souchong (S).
Large leaves are rolled, lengthwise, producing coarse, ragged pieces. Often used for Chinese smoked teas.Broken tea grades come from a mechanical process, which breaks up and crushes the leaves. Broken grades infuse quickly, are stronger, darker and heartier. Most teabags usually contain Broken Pekoe and Broken Orange Pekoe, as well as fannings and dust.


Broken leaf grades are divided into the following categories:
Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (GFBOP)
Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (GBOP)
Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe (TGBOP)
Tippy Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (TGFBOP)
Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe (FBOP)
Broken Orange Pekoe (BOP)
Broken Pekoe (BP)
Broken Pekoe Souchong (BPS)
Fannings/Fines (also refered to as Dusts)
Fannings refer to the pieces of tealeaves left over from sieving, which separates larger, uniform and whole leaves and are used in blends for tea bags which require a faster brew. A number 1 is also added to broken leaf grades to denote better quality. Dust means smaller pieces than fannings. Dusts and fannings are further categorized as:
Orange Fannings(OF)
Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings(BOPF)
Pekoe Fannings (PF)
Broken Pekoe Fannings (BPF)
Pekoe Dust, Red Dust (RD)
Fine Dust (FD)
Golden Dust (GD)
Super Red Dust (SRD)
Super Fine Dust (SFD)
Broken Mixed Fannings (BMF)

As with black tea, you won’t find a consistent grading system for green teas, but here are some terms you’ll discover.

Unlike the grading for Black and Green teas, Oolong grading refers to the quality of the resulting tea. The scale ranges from Common, which is the worst, to Fancy, Extra Fancy, Fanciest and Extra Choice, or Extra Fine.