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Dirty rotten scoundrels? Or perhaps I've I missed something???

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Hello all,

I've just received a package of Kolokkumalai (sounds rather Kiwi, yeah?) estate tea from the Kottagudi plantations in South India as a lovely gift from a business associate who was working in the area.

The package is brightly festooned with "FOP" stickers in addition to the "Flowery Orange Pekoe" boldly emblazoned across the front. The tea is pleasant, with a dark, almost bugundy colour, a somewhat Ceylonese nose, and infuses quickly.

My question is on Indian tea grading as I thought this was closely controlled throughout the entire country. It is at best BOP- all of it is bits and small chips not more than 4mm long, all of a relatively uniform very dark colour. Was my friend swindled by dirten rotten scoundrels, or is South Indian FOP not what I expect from a Darjeeling FOP? Isn't FOP supposed to be a full leaf tea!?

I looked the packaging over thoroughly and I'm unable to see anything suggesting another grade. It also has the words "Orthodox Tea". It all seems rather unorthodox in my view :)

Thanks to all for any information.

Randall Q. R. Huxley, III

Reply to
randomm
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It is probably a mediocre quality tea.

As Wikipedia states, tea qualities are :

In Assam, the main leafy tea grades produced are flowery pekoe (FP), orange pekoe (OP), pekoe (P), pekoe souchong (PS), and souchong (S), with broken tea grades

BOP = Broken Orange pekoe; FOP = Flowery Orange Pekoe; TGFOP = Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe; FTGFOP = Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe.

I believe, that FOP is not a tea dust, like BOP, but the laves could be small and somewhat broken, too. And since the leaves are broken, they infuse pretty quickly.

have a nice tea day

Tomas

Reply to
Balt

FOP is thin whole twisted leaf. In practice, it doesn't stay that way long because it is so thin it reduces itself to FB(roken)OB almost just from its own weight or just by simple packaging. Flower means you should see some gold tip. Darjeeling OP is thick twisted leaf and maintains its form more readily. Most OP has white tip. Orthodox justs means manual processing versus machine. For Indian teas there is no connection between physical grade and taste. I prefer the larger grade for the agony of the leaves.

Jim

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Reply to
Space Cowboy

Perhaps this is what happened. But it was quite a departure from what I've seen in the past.

Quite right. After poking around in the bag there are indeed some browish-gold tippy bits.

Thank you Jim and Tomas for your insights.

Rand

Reply to
randomm

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