How to distinguish the classification standard of international black tea? what is the best grade of black tea?

Published: Sep 06, 2026 Author: World Gafei Last Updated: Sep/06/2026 100 views

Western black tea grading in the European tradition of managing black tea production, whether mechanical or manual, products are graded according to the following grades, in order to achieve certain quality standards. This is called orthodox black tea, in contrast to the faster and more industrialized black tea production that was later invented. Basic orthodox achievements in the production of OP-Orange Pekoe- yellow-orange Baihao tea

Western Black Tea Grading

In the European tradition of managing black tea production, whether mechanical or manual, the product is graded according to the following grades to achieve certain quality standards. This was called "orthodox" black tea, in contrast to the later invention of faster, more industrialized black tea production.

Basic "orthodox" grades

OP-Orange Pekoe

Major grades in tea production. However, most machine-cut products (and therefore not truly orthodox) bear this rating label. We think it's very misleading.

FOP-Flowery Orange Pekoe

Young leaves with a few pointed ones.

GFOP-Golden Orange Pekoe

Some leaves are more pointed than FOP, and true whole leaves can sometimes be found in certain products.

TGFOP-Tippy Golden Flower Orange Pekoe-Tilted Golden Flower Orange Pekoe

No GFOP coarse leaves, some products are whole leaf

FTGFOP-Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe-BEST OF SENSE GOLDEN FLOWER Orange WHITE POWDER

The best grade in mass-produced black tea. Usually tea plantations use this to show their quality. Sometimes a number 1 is added to the label to indicate the best rating

SFTGFOP-Super Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Peokoe

Some people say S stands for "special," but anyway, that's the highest rating on the Orange-White Meridian rating system.

There are also grade names for broken tea grades and CTC products, such as BOP-Broken Orange Pekoe-Broken Orange Powder, F-Fannings-Flake Tea and D-Dust-Tea Powder. The letter "B" is used logically in the same way as in the above system. Let's discuss this in another article.

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