An overview of the international black tea grading system

I have always wondered why the British claim to like tea but have never seen a complete tea rating system in the UK. Britain has not even seen particularly expensive tea. There are many British tea brands, the old ones are twinings, harrods,w, the newcomers are teapigs, and so on. I only use twinings and fanciampterm here because they have a lot of information and have a full range of pictures. It's not about recommending their tea.

Twinings can be called British imperial tea. Ordinary people generally say that the tea that drinks better is basically from their family. In my opinion, his family is very good at blending tea. When Prince William got married, they had special blended tea. They have specialized tea appraisers, tea mixers, and have their own training system.

the most common breakfast tea they serve is a blend of Assam tea and Ceylon tea, with the aroma of Assam and the flavor of Ceylon tea. There are different seasons of tea in different producing areas every year, and the job of the tea mixer is to mix different teas into teas with the same taste. They have tea tasting training, and friends who are interested can try it.

many people mistakenly think that Chuanning only has open-shelf goods in supermarkets, and there are a lot of special features on their official website, as well as tea that cannot be bought elsewhere.

Twining breakfast tea, tea bag, broken tea.

another established tea company is probably Fortnum & amp; Mason, which sells more tea, and begins to have some choices in terms of origin and grade.

Darjeeling

even so, these tea companies do not produce particularly expensive tea. The most expensive Darjeeling is 125g and 32 pounds, that is, more than 300RMB, which is nothing compared to many domestic teas.

later I learned that I was so naive that there was indeed a complete black tea system in Britain or internationally, but they were just unknown. Darjeeling in the picture below, the early 2014 pick from Twinings, the Darjeeling from Chamong tea house, sold for 250g for £88. In the case of the British tea industry, this is already a sky-high price of tea.

Chamong Manor in Twinings picked Darjeeling in early 2014.

what are the factors that affect the price of black tea? I have read some materials myself. the following are the materials I have learned and sorted out by myself. I still take Darjeeling as an example.

is the harvest time, which is probably the most important factor affecting the taste of tea

"Darjeeling Darjeeling Tea harvests about three times a year. Spring picking (called First Flush) time is about before the beginning of May every year, early spring gentle Rain Water and fog shrouded, so that the first pick Darjeeling often has a very fine brown and fragrance, soft taste.

the summer (Second Flush) is picked between May and June. The tea picked under the Asian monsoon is rich in color, rich in aroma and taste. Generally speaking, Darjeeling Tea is the most highly rated of the three harvests.

(Autumn Flush) tea picked in autumn will not be harvested until September to October after the local rainy season. Dark brown and smooth taste, Darjeeling Tea is the only one who can be used to make milk tea, and the price is also relatively easy. " [1]

2. Darjeeling producing area:

Darjeeling tea gardens are scattered in eight valleys at different elevations. The more well-known estates in the eight valleys include Ambootia, Arya, Badamtam, Balasun, Bannockbum, Barnesbeg, Bloomfield, Castleton, Fagu, Gielle, Giddapahar, Glenburn, Goomtee, Gopaldhara, Jungpana, Kalej Valley, Lingia, Longview, Makaibari Organic, Margaret's Hope, Millikthong, Mim, Moondaktee, Muscatel Valley Clonal, Nagri, Namring, Orange Valley, Pandam, Phoobsering, Puttabon, Risheehat, Rohini, Seeyok, Sepoydhoorah, Shivkhola, Singbulli, Springside, Singtom, Wait, 87 tea house [2]

3. Tea grade

does not mean that a good time on a good manor is necessarily good tea.

I happened to see someone say that broken tea is easier to taste than tea. I think that's a misunderstanding. Most of the tea available in British supermarkets is broken tea, but the best tea is always complete, and the appearance of the tea is determined by the position, shape and size of the tea.

the following is from a web page of a Taiwan tea merchant, explaining in detail the location and name of black tea

tea and the name

"the core bud at the most extreme end of the tea branch is called Flower Orange Bai Hao (Flowery Orange Pekoe, name F".The second piece of OP), tea twigs or the third piece of tea twigs called (Orange Pekoe, (Poeke, is the fourth leaf of P), tea twigs) is called the fifth species of PS), tea twigs, and the fifth species of tea twigs is called small (Souchong,). "the second or the third piece of tea twigs of PS), is called the number of tea twigs of (Pure Souchong, tea twigs, or the third piece of tea twigs is called the number of tea twig twigs of (Pure Souchong, (the fourth piece of tea twigs) is called the fifth species of tea twigs." [3]

(a bean friend pointed out to me that the Zhengshan race refers to the top leaves of the tea leaves in Zhengshan tea area instead of the fourth leaf mentioned by the Taiwan tea merchant, and Jin Junmei is the top core bud. )

most of Darjeeling's tea is FBO to OP.

the finest Darjeeling black tea is a fine bud on the branch, using only one core and one leaf (it is also said that one core and two leaves, generally the bud tip includes the core), pick it carefully with the strength of your fingertips, and pick it entirely by hand in order to avoid damage.

"the brown tea leaves have white hairs on the top. Different from the impression that tea is jet black, it is suitable for pure drink, and the fragrance after brewing is pungent, especially the slender layer of musk grape is most talked about. The brewing time should not exceed 2 minutes, otherwise it is easy to produce bitter taste. "[2]

this kind of tea with one core and one leaf is SFTGFOP (Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe), also known as Top Fine Flower Orange Bai Hao. "if the core buds account for only 1/4 of the weight of one core or two, it is estimated that the yield of summer tea core buds of organic tea should be about 12 jin." [3] it can be seen how precious it is.

description of tea

there is a detailed grading system for tea. If there is any discrepancy in Chinese, please refer to the English mark.

OP Orange

Flowery OP Orange

FOP1 Grade 1 represents the best appearance in this grade.

Golden Flowery OP1 (GFOP1) this is not common in Assam and Darjeeling.

Tippy Golden FOP (TGFOP), shows orange, yellow and white hairs. Good Greater Jilin and Assam are in this category. This is where the level of one core and one leaf begins. G stands for the color of tea, golden yellow. T represents the tender core (bud bag) at the top.

TGFOP (1) grade 1 shows orange, yellow and white hairs.

Finest TGFOP (FTGFOP) refined orange, yellow and white hair, if writing FTGFOP1 is the best in this grade. This grade is picked by hand. Someone jokingly interprets\ & quot;FTGFOP\ & quot; as\ & quot;Far Too Good For Ordinary People. \ & quot; (luxury goods that ordinary people can't afford). Occasionally FTGFOP writes STGFOP. S stands for special.

(in my impression, this level begins to describe the ratio of core to leaf, and the ratio of core has increased, but unfortunately I can't find the source)

Our wedding dresses for fat brides are designed to wow even the random onlooker. Immediately after buying, you get a peace of mind.

SFTGFOP (1) Top refined flower Orange Huang Bai Hao (with S and 1), the highest grade of black tea.

this is really rare, and it is rare that British tea can be labeled with this label.

if it is broken tea, it is another system.

the letter B stands for broken tea

BT represents ordinary broken tea

BP broken tea

BOP broken orange and white hairs, in fact, there are many Darjeeling in this grade. This kind of broken tea is suitable for brewing with milk, not for the second time. More common in Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon and other tea with milk and lemon.

F BOP broken flowers orange white hairs, a large number of bud tips

F BOP F the best broken flowers orange white hairs

G BOP broken flowers orange white hairs, the second grade in broken tea.

GF BOP1

TGF BOP1 shows broken flowers, orange and white hairs, which is the highest grade of broken tea, which is more common in Darjeeling and part of Assam.

there is another lower grade of, F, fanning, chopped tea. Replace F with B, and according to the grade of broken tea, you can interpret

PF

OF

FOF

GFOF

TGFOF

BOPF

Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings (BOPF) crushed orange powder, most Ceylon and Kenya tea are in this grade, spherical, without fine buds.

well, the last grade is tea powder, D (dust)

> D1 tea powder in India

D1, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China, Africa, South America, South India

PD powder

PD1 refined Bai Hao powder, most of which are produced in India.

now that we've talked about so many grading systems, let's take a look at a few different comparisons.

the pictures are from FairampterM, which can be used to compare the appearance of tea.

Darjeeling FTGFOP refined flower orange, yellow and white, the origin is not marked, and it is not marked when picking. I suspect this is autumn picking, because it is recommended to drink with milk.

Fellowamptern M refined flower orange yellow white hairs

refined flower orange yellow white hairs, tea  refined flowers orange yellow white hairs

refined flowers

Tea

refined flower orange

tea dregs  the following is Darjeeling Tumsong First Flush FTGFOP1, the top refined flower picked by Dengsong Spring, intertwined with green and white from Dengsong tea house (Tumsong)

spring tea

Dengsong first picked refined flower orange yellow

tea

Dengsong first picked refined flower orange yellow

tea soup

tea

tea

S Hope Second Flush FTGFOP summer pick refined flowers orange, yellow and white hairs, from Marguerite's hope tea house.

Summer tea is dark brown and golden, with a stronger flavor.

Marguerite's Hope tea house Summer picking refined Flower Orange Huang Bai Hao

Marguerite's Hope tea house Summer pick refined Flower Orange Huang Bai Hao Tea dregs

Flemish AmptM broken Orange  Tea

finally, a new discovery has been made that British people love to drink tea. However, I inadvertently found that the British have tampered with the tea grown in the United Kingdom. Tregothnan\ & # 39th's tea is grown on the coast of Cornwall and picked by hand, which is still in the experimental stage. This traditional tea is Tregothnan tea mixed with Assam, which I have always been curious about. Buy it next time and try it.

I think the meaning of this tea may be to put an end to the absence of tea in Britain. Because it is still a pilot product, its price is equivalent to 2-3 times that of imported tea.