Quality & Grades

FTGFOP

/ef-tee-jee-EFF-op/

'Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe' — the top grade of Indian whole-leaf black tea.

Despite its imperial-sounding name, the grade was invented by 19th-century British tea brokers. Today it indicates a tippy, hand-rolled, whole-leaf black tea of the highest visual quality. SFTGFOP1 is even higher.

Related terms

Words that travel together.

Orthodox

Tea processed by traditional methods that keep the leaf whole — the opposite of CTC.

Tippy

A finished tea full of golden or silver buds, signalling careful plucking and high quality.

From the Journal

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by Sameera

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