Explainer
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Tea grading systems explained
There is no single tea grading system. Chinese refined green teas use numeric trade grades — gunpowder 3505, Chunmee 41022 — that describe the finished make. Chinese specialty teas use names tied to pluck and origin — Bai Hao Yin Zhen, Tie Guan Yin. Indian, Ceylon and Kenyan orthodox teas use letter grades — OP, BOP, FTGFOP — that describe leaf size and tip. CTC tea uses its own set. None of them measures the same thing, and none of them measures quality directly.
| System | Used for | What it describes | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese numeric trade grades | Refined green tea for export | Make after refining: pellet or leaf size, tightness, broken content | 3505AAA, 9375, 41022, 9371 |
| Chinese named grades | Specialty white, oolong, black, scented | Plucking standard, origin, style, roast or scenting rounds | Bai Mu Dan, Tie Guan Yin, 5-round jasmine |
| Orthodox letter grades | Indian, Ceylon, Kenyan orthodox black | Leaf size and tip content: whole leaf, broken, fannings, dust | OP, BOP, FTGFOP, PF, D |
Guide
What does a Chinese numeric grade not tell you?
Garden, harvest date, cultivar or residue status. 3505 fixes pellet make; it does not fix moisture, screen size, broken ceiling or the residue standard. Those four belong on the contract, and quoting a grade without them leaves the price-relevant variables undefined.
Can orthodox letters be applied to Chinese tea?
Not meaningfully. OP and BOP describe leaf size in a rolling-and-sorting system developed for Assam and Ceylon. A rolled gunpowder pellet or a whole-bud Yin Zhen has no place in that scale. Buyers moving from Kenyan or Indian tea into Chinese tea should expect to specify by make and pluck instead.
Frequently asked
What does 3505 mean?
A gunpowder trade grade describing the finished pellet make — tight, uniform, dark green — with sub-grades AAAAA to D. It does not identify a garden or harvest.
What does OP mean in tea?
Orange Pekoe — a whole-leaf grade in the orthodox letter system used for Indian and Ceylon black tea. It describes leaf size, not flavour or origin.
Which grading system does white tea use?
Chinese named grades tied to plucking standard: Bai Hao Yin Zhen, Bai Mu Dan, Gong Mei and Shou Mei.
Which green tea is better, 95 or 110?
Numbers such as 95 and 110 are seller or market codes, not points on a universal quality scale, so a higher number is not automatically a better tea. Compare the teas behind them: dry leaf, cup, moisture and the written specification each seller attaches to its code.
Next step
Turn this into a specification.
Send the destination, the grade and the quantity. ODM Tea answers with the clauses this page describes, filled in.