Let us see what the abbreviation behind each grades of Darjeeling Tea mean. These are parameters which are based on size and quality of the Darjeeling tea leaves.

There are four main groups :

  1. Whole Leaf
  2. Broken Leaf
  3. Fannings
  4. Dust

Under these main groups are subgroups which are graded according to the quality and leaf sizes.

  • Whole Leaf
  1. SFTGFOP – Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
  2. FTGFOP – Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
  3. TGFOP – Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe
  • Broken Leaf
  1. FTGBOP – Fine Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
  2. TGBOP – Tippy Golden Broken Orange Pekoe
  3. FBOP – Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe
  4. BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe
  • Fannings
  1. GFOF – Golden Flowery Orange Fannings
  2. GOF – Golden Orange Fannings
  • Dust


The Darjeeling whole leaf teas are the finest tea leaves encapsulating in themselves the highest of tea aromas and taste. Darjeeling Tea Boutique deals only in whole leaf teas to ensure that its tea lovers gets to enjoy the finest teas available any where else.

The Broken leaves are smaller or broken tea leaves of the whole leaves which are graded as stage two tea leaves separated and differentiated thus by the size of the sieve hole.

The Fannings are smaller than broken tea leaves and thus are lower in terms of tea quality.

The Dust are the lowest of tea grades and are often used in tea bags.

(The steeping time of the same Darjeeling tea form the same plantation decreases with the decrease of leaf size.)


Update dated: 1.4.2022

As per the latest updates from the Tea Board of India, the following are the acceptable standard tea grades of Darjeeling circular dated 9.12.21

Darjeeling Tea Grades

  • BPS
  • CLONAL DELIGHT
  • CLONAL MUSK
  • EMERALD
  • ENIGMA
  • FLOWERY CLONAL
  • FOF
  • FTGFOP
  • FTGFOP1
  • FTGFOP1 SPECIALITY
  • FTGFOP1 TIPPY CtONAt
  • FTGFOP1 (CH)
  • FTGFOP1 (CL)
  • FTGFOP1 (MUSCATET)
  • GBOP
  • GOF
  • MOONDROP
  • MOONLIGHT
  • MOONSHINE
  • MYSTIC
  • OF
  • OOLONG
  • PF
  • RUBY
  • SFTGFOPl
  • SILVER NEEDLE/ NOOZLE
  • SILVER TIPS
  • TGBOP
  • TGBOP1
  • TGFBOP
  • TGFOP1
  • TGOF
  • THUNDER
  • WHITE TEA
  • WONDER

 

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