Confusing Tea Grades

[Yajna Patni]

Any one else confused by all the grades of tea?

My first question is...

what is the difference between Orange Pekoe and CTC?

The tea i am drinking now says it is orange pekoe, but it looks like the little balls i associate with CTC.

[Richard Kilgore]

Yes, it is confusing. And there is often added confusion between tea leaf grades and tea processing characteristics.

CTC (cut, torn, curled) is a matter of processing. Lower grade leaf is used, but CTC is not a grade per se.

Orange Pekoe (OP) refers to a grade. Grades run from "D" for dust - that which goes into most tea bags, and FTGFOP (finest, tippy, golden, flowery, orange pekoe). The more letters, the better the grade of leaf. Here's a helpful chart at Imperial Tea Garden.

However, tea marketing results in calling many black teas Orange Pekoe, as if it were a specific type of tea.

[Wholemeal Crank]

I can't speak directly to that, but I did find this recently, on a web site that belongs to one of my favorite tea shops, Wing Hop Fung:

Grading system

And the relevant listing is

1. (Name of Tea) ex: White Tea

2. Special Grade (Name of Tea) ex: Special Grade White Tea

3. Premium (Name of Tea) ex: Premium White Tea

4. Premium Special Grade (Name of Tea) ex: Premium Special Grade White Tea

5. Supreme (Name of Tea) ex: Supreme White Tea

6. Supreme Special Grade (Name of Tea) ex: Supreme Special Grade White Tea

7. Royal (Name of Tea) ex: Royal White Tea

8. Precious (Name of Tea) ex: Precious White Tea

9. Precious Rare (Name of Tea) ex: Precious Rare White Tea

I do not think that the english names for these various grades are standard, and had no idea looking at the jars of tea in their shop as to which grade was higher or lower. I am looking forward to my next visit with this info in hand, as it should make things a lot clearer.

My impression is that most tea merchants here use their own names for the various grades of tea, but the grading is based on a common standard.

[Richard Kilgore]

All of this grading business is complicated by the fact that Chinese teas are not typically graded by the same grading system as teas from India and Sri Lanka, the system I linked to above.

One merchant's highest grades, whatever they call them, are another merchant's lowest or middle grades.

Wing Hop Fung (birdpick.com) has their own grading system for Chinese teas, and they should give you some relative sense of what level of quality you are looking at within their range of teas. But experience is your guide in figuring out what the hyped up terms really mean.