Tea Grading Terms RSS
OP, BOP, GFOF, TGFOP… Understanding Tea Grades
There are a number of abbreviations seen next to the names of some black teas, that represent grading terms, used to provide information about the type of leaves contained in a particular bag of tea. Tea leaves are prepared in different ways, from how they are plucked to the way they are processed, and tea grading terms can inform the buyer about the size and appearance of the leaves, and give an indication of their quality. They are not used for every type of tea, or from every tea-producing country, but are more often associated with black teas from countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia or Africa, rather than China or Taiwan, where different grading terms are used.