KUSMI TEA

Tea grades

The value of the tea is also determined by the grade, i.e. the part of the leaf that is picked and destined to form the tea.
There are two main families of grades: OP for Orange Pekoe (Orange is taken from the Dutch royal family name Oranje Nassau and not the fruit, and Pekoe comes from Chinese meaning "light down") indicating whole leaves, and BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) indicating broken leaves.

The more letters that come in front of these two grades, the more buds the tea has ("Golden Tips"), the younger and smaller the growth, and the higher the quality of the tea.

Whole leaf (FOP)
FOP
Flowery Orange Pekoe
Pekoe + two leaves (fine picking)
GFOP	Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
TGFOP	Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
TGFOP 1	Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One
FTGFOP	Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
FTGFOP 1	Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One
SFTGFOP	Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
SFTGFOP 1	Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe One

Broken leaf (OP)
BOP
Broken Orange Pekoe
Even and regular presentation without bits of flat or poorly fermented leaves
Like the FOP, if there are a lot of buds present, it is graded in increasing order of quality as
BOP 1	Broken Orange Pekoe
FBOP	Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
>GBOP	Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
GFBOP	Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
TGBOP	Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
BP	Broken Pekoe	2nd or 3rd leaf. The tea is coarser and darker than BOP. It is generally used for broken leaf blends
BP S	Broken Pekoe Souchong. Very coarse, low quality