Orange Pekoe?

Hey Roy. Which teas do you mean that don't have grades? Do you mean supermarket tea? The stuff you find is teabags would be a "dust" grade, I believe.

OP isn't actually the lowest. I think BOP is lower than that, which is Broken Orange Pekoe. Then there's ENBOP (Extremely Nasty Broken Orange Pekoe) which is reserved for the stuff I get at Denny's. :-)

I find the grades confusing too. Basically, and here is a good rule of thumb, the more letters the better. So look for a good alphabet soup and rest assured you're getting quality. :-)

Ian

I think he refered to the menu of the restaurant. While some teas had a classification (OP or whatever) others did not. So his question was about the quality of the 'non-graded' teas on the menu.

Roy, in my experience not all tea is classified like that. For example, I don't think I ever saw a japanese green tea with this sort of classification, but then again... ;-) At least here in Japan the System seems to be different.

According to this site just found,

Roy, do you remember the names or tyes of the teas that were not graded in OP, FOP..etc. ?

ciao Patrick

Roy,

"Contrary to popular opinion, Orange Pekoe does not refer to a particular flavor, or even to a specific variety or quality or tea. Orange Pekoe is nothing more than a designation of leaf size."

See

Regards, Dean

Yes, exactly.

No, unfortunately, I do not, but my recolletion is only maybe 1/3 of the teas had OP after them.

PF (Pekoe Fannings) is smaller than BOP.

Not true because size doesn't matter. You can get excellent flavor from PF or BOP. It all depends on what satisfies your palate and only the individual can be the judge of that.

And different leaf sizes can be appreciated for different times. I was given a wonderful Havukal Nilgiri breakfast tea that has very broken leaves and yet, even being a 2002, is absolutely delicious...

... but I wouldn't drink it in the evening.

She didn't know what she was talking about, but was conveying the myth that size matters.

PF (Pekoe Fannings) and BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) are smaller than OP. These are referenced in other paragraphs and, IMHO, should have been included in the chart.

No. Teas from India and, IIRC, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) use the letter gradings, teas from other countries don't necessarily. Don't get hung up on it, just sample the grand variety of teas that are available and decide which you like. Eventually, you might discover that you consistently prefer a certain set of letters but you'll also gain the understanding that weather and storage conditions will change the taste of your favorite teas from year to year and from vendor to vendor.

Yes, breakfast teas are typically consumed in the morning and are likely to be robust to jump-start your day. I don't agree that different leaf sizes have anything to do with the time of day, however, because a blend such as Russian Caravan also has broken leaves but is usually consumed in the evening.

I fault Lipton for this rumor because I was under the same impression while growing up. My dad drank Lipton, which I never liked, and it wasn't until I started trying other teas, determined to stay away from the Orange Pekoe that Lipton touted, that I learned the truth.

She knew absolutely nothing about tea. Here's the thing: the tea served at basically all restaurants is about as high a quality as powdered Beagle feces. So, 'OP,' being one slight step above pure crap, is considered "high quality" at many restaurants.

Well, you're certainly free to disagree with me.

I find Russian Caravan to be too robust for an evening tea. In my experience, broken leaf teas produce a beverage unsuited to evening teas, but still very tasty in the proper setting. It's not a matter of quality, just final flavor.

As you said, it's up to the individual's palate.

What? You mean that it really wasn't supposed to taste like oranges to begin with? (Which would be the misconception I grew up with.)

Yes. You know, I get the lighter effect from RC that some do. That may be why it's an evening tea for me.

LOL! And, I like oranges which made the whole thing that much more puzzling. I figured it was the Pekoe that was ruining it.

That makes two of us. Darnedest thing. And my parents, being coffee drinkers, couldn't help me at all.

And it was, of course, in the days before the internet when I could easily have answered this question from my bedroom. As it was, the few

The answer is at the bottom of the page- all the grades are listed. The grades here are for black teas. I hope this helps.

So, Falky Foo, are we to surmise that your appeciation of restaurant teas and OP ranks low? Well, I agree completely with your cogent analysis. Now, what about those famous taste choices, dust and fannings. Logic would strongly indicate that a relatively decent tea would not be ground to dust. By the way, beagles are cool. Don't denigrate beagles. Thanks.

Michael

Falky fooCkmvd.59293$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com12/13/04

Well, perhaps ironically, my current girlfriend's last name is Fanning, and she owns a Beagle. And boy do I make fun of that last name.