Gradering enligt Forrest
D.M. Forrest: “ A hundred years of Ceylon tea 1867-1967”, Chatto & Windus, London, 1967. Appendix 3.
“ Frequent mention has been made in the text of the various grades into which Ceylon tea is divided. These grade names are an indication of size or appearance of manufactured leaf and not of its quality, and as E.L. Keegel has pointed out (Tea Manufacture in Ceylon, 2nd ed. 1958, Tea Research institute of Ceylon), ‘there is a lack of uniformity in the market grades today which makes it difficult to describe them with any accuracy’.
Briefly, however, they are divided into two groups – the Leaf grades such as was chiefly made by the Ceylon pioneers, and the smaller Broken grades which are in vogue today.
Leaf grades are usually divided into:
Broken grades are divided into:
The grades may be described as follows:
| O.P. | Long, thin, wiry leaves which sometimes contain tip. The liquors are light or pale in colour. |
| Pek | The leaves of this grade are shorter and not so wiry as O.P., but the liquors generally have more colour |
| Sou. | A bold and round leaf, with pale liquors |
| B.O.P. | This grade is one of the most sought after. It is much smaller than any of the leaf grades and contains tip. The liquors have good colour and strength. |
| B.P. | Slightly larger than B.O.P., with rather less colour in the cup; useful as a filler in a blend. |
| B.P.S. | A little larger than B.P. and in consequence lighter in the cup, but also used as a filler |
| B.O.P.F. | This grade is also much sought after, especially in the U.K., and fetches high prices. It is much smaller than B.O.P., and its main virtues are quick brewing, with good colour in the cup. |
In addition there are the various ‘Flowery’ variants of the main grades (e.g. F.O.P. and F.B.O.P.F.), the nature of which is described on page 173. (Se nedan)
Only a small quantity of the Leaf and Flowery grades is produced in modern Ceylon. The former find their chief market in South America and to a less degree in North Africa and a few European countries; the latter are mainly popular in the Middle East, particularly Iran. Few of the Up-country estates make those grades at all – their stable lines are B.O.P. and B.O.P.F. such as are so dominant in the U.K., Australia and South Africa. The demand appears to be for ever smaller and smaller leaf, and a great deal of cutting or milling is resorted to today both in countries of origin and by the packers.”
P. 173: “The presence of ‘tip’, which is in fact the leaf-bud at the top of the ‘two leaves and a bud’, has always been prized by tea-tasters, though at least as much on grounds of appearance as of flavour. ‘Tippy’ or ‘Flowery’ teas (such grades as Flowery Orange Pekoe) are still made in Ceylon and fetch high prices for the Middle East market.”
Uppdaterad 2007-04-20